Summary

In June 2013 Russia passed a law banning the distribution of
information about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) relationships
to children. The law effectively legalizes discrimination based on sexual
orientation. Its passage coincided with a ratcheting up of homophobic rhetoric
in state media and an increase in homophobic violence around the country.

All over Russia there has been an increase in attacks by
vigilante groups and individuals against LGBT people in the past two years.
There has also been an increase in attacks on LGBT activists, and anti-gay groups
have used the 2013 law to justify mounting campaigns of harassment and
intimidation of LGBT teachers and other school or college staff to get them
fired from their jobs.

Although Russian law enforcement agencies have the tools to
prosecute homophobic violence, there appears to be no will to do so and no
policy or instructions from the leadership to take homophobic violence
seriously. Aside from several isolated investigations, the authorities have
done little to hold assailants accountable.

Instead of publicly denouncing anti-LGBT violence and
rhetoric, Russia’s leadership has remained silent. In some cases public
officials have engaged in explicit anti-LGBT hate speech.

This inaction has only served to perpetuate the cycle of
discrimination, harassment, and violence. Moreover, it contravenes
Russia’s obligations under domestic law and many key international human
rights treaties to which it is a party to protect all people, including LGBT
people of all ages, from violence and discrimination.

This report documents the spread of homophobic and
transphobic violence and everyday harassment against LGBT people and activists
that has taken place in the lead-up to and aftermath of the adoption of the
2013 anti-LGBT law. It is based on 94 interviews with LGBT people and activists
from 16 cities and towns in Russia. LGBT people and activists described the
types of abuse they were subjected to and the obstacles they encounter when
they seek redress.

The report analyzes the authorities’ overall lack of a
proper response to such violence.

Violence and Harassment
against LGBT People

LGBT people in Russia face stigma, harassment, and violence
in their everyday lives, and most people who spoke with Human Rights Watch said
that this intensified in 2013. In some cases they were attacked by anti-LGBT
vigilante groups that sprang up in late 2012 across Russia. These groups
consist of a network of radical nationalist men who lure gay men and teenage
children on the pretext of a fake date, hold them against their will, and
humiliate and expose them by videotaping the encounter. Such encounters have
often involved perpetrators pouring urine over their victims and in some cases
forcing them to drink it. Assailants often hit and kicked the victims; in some
cases they hit their victims with dildos or forced them to hold and pose with
dildos; stripped them naked; painted and drew slurs on them; and/or sprayed
them with construction foam in the genital area. Hundreds of such videos have
been posted online.

The suffering of victims of group vigilante attacks cannot
be underestimated. Twenty-two victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch told us
they developed anxiety and became depressed as a result of the attacks. Others
said they stayed at home because they were too frightened to go outside. In
addition to lasting emotional trauma, some vigilantes’ victims also
described the physical injuries they sustained, including bone fractures and
facial injuries.

In other cases, LGBT people described being physically
attacked by strangers on the subway, on the street, at nightclubs, and, in one
case, at a job interview. The assailants did not hide their homophobic
motivation. Most interviewees told Human Rights Watch that their attackers
often used offensive, obscene language related to their sexual orientation, for
example calling LGBT people “pedophiles,” “perverts,”
or abnormal.

Although for the past decade activists involved in public
LGBT gatherings have faced hostility from Russian authorities and anti-LGBT
counter-demonstrators, almost all activists told Human Rights Watch that the
number of attacks on public LGBT events had risen in the past two years and
that in 2013 anti-gay activists had attacked just about every public
demonstration in favor of LGBT equality of which they were aware.

The vast majority of LGBT activists interviewed by Human
Rights Watch had been attacked at least once during public events in support of
LGBT equality in 2012 and 2013 in several cities, including Voronezh, Moscow,
Novosibirsk, and St. Petersburg. They said that anti-gay counter-protesters
routinely harass them, use offensive homophobic language, or threaten them with
physical violence. Police consistently fail to take adequate measures to
prevent or redress the harassment and attacks.

Human Rights Watch documented seven cases in which vicious
smear campaigns sought to pressure LGBT people or supporters of LGBT rights to
resign from their jobs as educators in schools, universities, or community
centers for children. In almost all cases the campaigns accused the victims of
trying to spread what they called propaganda. Most eventually lost their jobs.

Government Response

Although Russian law enforcement authorities have made some
attempts to prosecute anti-LGBT violence, victims face almost insurmountable
obstacles seeking justice. The result is widespread impunity for homophobic
crimes.

Law enforcement agencies deliberately ignore hatred of LGBT
people as a key criminal motive behind the attacks. Although Russia has hate
crime laws, Russian law enforcement agencies do not treat even the most
blatantly homophobic violence as hate crimes. Not a single case documented in
this report was investigated as a hate crime. Police treat most homophobic
attacks as common crime, such as hooliganism or assault and battery.

In cases we documented, when police did open criminal
investigations, they were dismissive and reluctant to investigate effectively,
often blaming victims for the attacks. Even when perpetrators were detained
immediately after the attack, police did little to protect victims.

In only three cases documented by Human Rights Watch in
2012-2014 were the investigations brought to court. At least two of the
attackers in these cases were convicted, but their sentences did not correspond
to the gravity of harm suffered by victims.

The authorities keep no data on anti-LGBT violence. This
allows them to deny that it is a serious problem and makes it impossible for
independent groups to verify through official figures the extent of the problem
and the apparent increase in violence in the past two years. The lack of data
also impedes the development of strategies that could protect people from
attacks.

In light of the obstacles victims of homophobic violence
face in securing redress and protection, it is no wonder that they are
reluctant to file reports. As a result, much homophobic violence goes
unreported. In 22 cases we documented in this report, victims did not file
police reports because, they said, they did not trust the police, feared more
humiliation and violence, or simply did not see any value in taking time to
report the attacks against them because they knew from previous experience that
the police would not bother to carry out an effective investigation.

Russia has ratified numerous international human rights
treaties that place obligations on it to protect the rights of individuals
against violence and other type of abuses. Russia has clear obligations under
human rights law to act with due diligence to protect the human rights of LGBT
persons to live free from violence, to nondiscrimination, and to effective
judicial remedies. Discriminatory protection against violence and
discriminatory access to justice are prohibited under international law.

Russia can stop the cycle of homophobic violence and
impunity. It has many of the necessary tools, but it needs the political will
to do so. Three key steps Russia needs to take are: first, for its leadership
to publicly condemn such violence and commit to ending and preventing it;
second, for its law enforcement agencies to start investigating and prosecuting
homophobic violence as hate crimes under the law; and finally, the Russian
government should immediately repeal the anti-LGBT propaganda law, which
implicitly condones and encourages such violence in the first place, as well as
harms children by denying them access to essential information.

In line with
article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the term
“child” or “children” refers to a person or persons under
18 years of age. When referring specifically to Law No. 135-FZ, the term
“minors” may be used to refer to children, as that is the language
in the law.

Recommendations

To the Government of the Russian Federation

Immediately issue a public statement
condemning the use of hate speech in regard to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) people and issues related to their lifestyle and health;

Publicly acknowledge the scope and gravity
of the problem of violence and harassment against LGBT people in Russia, and
commit to taking steps to end these abuses;

Repeal provisions of Law No. 135-FZ of June
29, 2013 (the “gay propaganda” law) banning distribution of
information about LGBT relationships to children;

Repeal and amend other laws, including
Federal Law No. 167-FZ of July 2, 2013 and governmental decree No. 93 of
February 10, 2014, that contain discriminatory provisions against LGBT people;

Instruct legislatures of Russian regions
where regional anti-LGBT “propaganda” laws remain in force to
repeal these laws because they violate Russia’s international human
rights obligations;

Introduce legislation to protect the rights
of all LGBT people, including children, such as legislation to explicitly
proscribe discrimination against them in public services and to make sexual
orientation and gender identity a protected category against discrimination in
relevant provisions of Russia’s criminal and civil laws;

In the meantime, desist from implementing
laws that contradict Russia’s international human rights obligations;

Direct the Investigative Committee of the
Russian Federation, the country’s main investigative agency, to fulfill
its responsibility under Russian law to investigate in a thorough, impartial,
and timely manner all allegations of violence against LGBT people;

End rhetoric by members of the government
that stigmatizes the LGBT community, and stop fostering an atmosphere in which
Russian authorities appear to deem anti-LGBT sentiments and violence as
permissible;

Discipline all government employees and
other public figures, including those on state television, who use hateful and
discriminatory language in their public appearances, statements, interviews,
conversations, and other public situations;

Hold accountable those who engage in
anti-LGBT hate speech in Russian media and press;

Instruct relevant law enforcement agencies,
such as the prosecutor general’s office, the Ministry of Interior, and
the Investigative Committee, to gather data about homophobic and transphobic
crimes, and make the gathering of such data compulsory;

Instruct the country’s prosecutors and
judges to pay special attention to and use hate crime legislation when
prosecuting crimes and infractions against LGBT people;

Monitor law enforcement officials’
response to crimes against LGBT people, with the goal of continuously improving
the response;

Hold accountable and discipline those law
enforcement officials who are engaged in hate speech and abusive behavior ;

Encourage victims of homophobic and
transphobic crimes to report to police by introducing and effectively enforcing
basic confidentiality standards;

Ensure that judgments by the European Court
of Human Rights (i.e. Alekseyev v. Russia) on freedom of association and
freedom of assembly are complied with through laws and policies of the Russian
Federation;

Instruct local authorities to comply with
the standards on freedom of expression, association, and assembly set out by
the European Court of Human Rights;

Implement Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5 of
the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to member states on measures
to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

To the Ministry of
Interior

Issue a public statement condemning all acts
of violence and discrimination against LGBT people and committing to bring to
justice all those responsible for homophobic and transphobic attacks;

Discipline officers who engage in homophobic
slurs and dismiss victims’ allegations of abuse;

Inform victims of homophobic hate crimes of
the results of investigations;

Collect and publish data on homophobic
crimes;

Ensure the safety of all those present
during public peaceful LGBT events and that adequate and effective
measures are put in place to protect LGBT activists from aggression and
violence by anti-LGBT counter-protesters;

In cases when homophobic attacks take place
during peaceful LGBT events, ensure that law enforcement acts in accordance
with Russian law to detain and prosecute assailants;

Ensure that all law enforcement officers
comply with and implement laws on policing, including with regard to length of
detention, registering detainees, and other procedures and protections for
detainees;

Train all criminal justice officials in
international human rights standards and nondiscrimination, including on issues
of sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identity; such training is most
effective when fully integrated into training programs provided to all ranks
and not treated as a separate topic to the core curriculum of training.

To the Investigative
Committee

Investigate promptly and impartially all
allegations of homophobic and transphobic violence and prosecute perpetrators
to the fullest extent of the law;

Facilitate reporting of abuse by ensuring
that victims filing complaints are guaranteed confidentiality and respect for
their right to privacy;

Ensure that every investigation is conducted
promptly and impartially and that investigators investigate all those
responsible;

Appoint and train liaison officers within
each local investigative committee who could serve as point persons for LGBT
people and other vulnerable groups;

Gather and publish data on homophobic
crimes.

To the Prosecutor
General’s Office

Review and ensure compliance of police and
investigative committee officials with Russian law and international human
rights standards regarding prosecution of homophobic assaults and harassment;

Ensure that article 63 of the Russian
Criminal Code is invoked when prosecuting violence and other harassment against
LGBT victims when it is clear that the crime had an anti-LGBT motivation.

To Domestic and
International Nongovernmental Organizations

Include violence and discrimination against
LGBT communities among priority issues for programming and advocacy;

Support the development of organizations
among members of the LGBT community to strengthen the capacity of these persons
to advocate for the protection of their rights in institutional fora.

To the Governments of
the United States, the European Union, and Individual European Union Member
States

Continue to publically call on the Russian
government to repeal the federal law banning “propaganda of
nontraditional sexual relationships” among children;

Publically condemn acts of violence against
LGBT people and activists and raise this issue in routine and high-level
meetings with relevant Russian officials;

In line with the June 2013 EU guidelines to
promote and protect the enjoyment of all human rights by lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons, contribute to combatting
any form of anti-LGBTI violence by seeking assistance and redress for victims
of such violence and by supporting civil society and governmental initiatives
to monitor cases of violence, and by educating law enforcement personnel;

Urge the Russian government to implement the
decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Alekseyev v.
Russia and Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5 of the Council of Europe Committee
of Ministers to member states on measures to combat discrimination on
grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Glossary

Bisexual

Sexual
orientation of a person who is sexually and romantically attracted to both
males and females.

Gay

Used
here to refer to the sexual orientation of a male whose primary sexual and
romantic attraction is toward other males.

Gender

Social
and cultural codes (as opposed to biological sex) used to distinguish between
what a society considers “masculine” or “feminine”
conduct.

Gender identity

A
person’s internal, deeply felt sense of being female or male, both, or
something other than female and male. A person’s gender identity does
not necessarily correspond to the biological sex assigned at birth.

Heterosexual

A
person whose primary sexual and romantic attraction or sexual orientation is
toward people of the opposite sex.

Homophobia

Fear
and contempt of homosexuals, usually based on negative stereotypes of
homosexuality.

Homosexual

Sexual
orientation of a person whose primary sexual and romantic attractions are
toward people of the same sex.

LGBT/LGBTI

Lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, (and intersex); an inclusive term for groups and
identities sometimes associated together as “sexual minorities.”

Lesbian

Sexual
orientation of a female whose primary sexual and romantic attraction is
toward other females.

Sexual orientation

The
way a person’s sexual and romantic desires are directed. The term
describes whether a person is attracted primarily to people of the same sex,
the opposite sex, or to both.

Transgender

The
gender identity of people whose birth gender (which they were declared to
have upon birth) does not conform to their lived and/or perceived gender (the
gender that they are most comfortable with expressing or would express given
a choice). A transgender person usually adopts, or would prefer to adopt, a gender
expression in consonance with their preferred gender but may or may not
desire to permanently alter their bodily characteristics in order to conform
to their preferred gender.

Methodology

This report is based on field research conducted by a Human Rights
Watch researcher in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Kazan, Nizhni Novgorod,
Novosibirsk, and Voronezh between October and November 2013 as well as in
follow-up email and telephone interviews. Additionally, the researcher
interviewed people, in in-person, telephone, and Skype interviews, from
Yekaterinburg, Tolyatti, Murmansk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Krasnodar,
Rostov-on-Don and Pervouralsk. Another Human Rights Watch researcher joined one
of the field research missions. Human Rights Watch conducted in-depth
interviews with 78 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people who
experienced various types of physical violence and harassment because of their
sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, Human Rights Watch
interviewed 46 LGBT activists who were attacked or harassed by anti-gay
counter-protesters. At least 30 of them were detained by police for their
participation in public demonstrations for LGBT rights and equality.

Thirty-nine of those interviewed for this report were representatives
of LGBT nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), unregistered groups, and
mainstream human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch sent letters
requesting meetings and information to the Ministry of Interior, the prosecutor
general, and the Investigative Committee. All replied, but none agreed to meet.

At least seven victims of homophobic and transphobic
violence and harassment declined to be interviewed due to fear of retaliation,
being outed, and lack of trust in the justice system.

All of the interviews were conducted in Russian by a Human
Rights Watch researcher who is a native Russian speaker. All interviewees were
informed of the purpose of the interviews and their voluntary nature and the
goal and public nature of our reports, and they were told that they could end
the interview any time. Human Rights Watch provided no incentive for
interviewees. Where appropriate, Human Rights Watch provided contact
information for organizations offering legal or psychological counseling
services. To ensure the security of victims of homophobic and transphobic
violence, we have used pseudonyms for most of the interviewed individuals and
have withheld the locations and other identifying details of some interviews.

I. Background

Homophobia in the Soviet Union and Russia

Homophobia is not a new phenomenon in Russia: it was
entrenched during the Soviet era, and both USSR and Russian imperial law
included criminal punishment for homosexual sex.[1] Sex
between men became a criminal offence in 1934 in the USSR and carried a prison
term of up to five years of hard labor, and during the Soviet era thousands of
men were convicted for sodomy and sent to labor camps and psychiatric
institutions.[2] While
same-sex relationships between women were not criminalized, lesbians faced
forced psychiatric hospitalization.[3]

As a result, the majority of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) people kept a low profile and concealed their sexual
orientation.

Same-sex relations between men were decriminalized in 1993,
two years after end of Soviet regime, and in 1999 the Russian Ministry of Health
recognized the standards of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD),
which was revised in 1990 and de-pathologized homosexuality.[4]
The age of consent in Russia is the same regardless
of sexual orientation, and in 2003, following various changes, was set at 16
years old.[5]

Yet the Russian public increasingly views LGBT people as
“abnormal” and “perverse,” and widespread social stigma
around homosexuality persists.[6] This trend
coincides with the increasing spread of hateful, anti-LGBT rhetoric, including
by public officials in the media, and the promulgation of anti-gay
“propaganda” laws. The trend is also encouraged by the absence of
any concerted official efforts to condemn discrimination against LGBT people.

Russian Orthodox Church leaders have made public inflammatory
statements about gay people, and the strong and growing influence of the
Russian Orthodox Church fuels existing homophobic sentiments. In 2014, for
example, one high-level church official said that same-sex relations should be
“completely eliminated” from Russian society, preferably through
“moral persuasion” but if necessary through a public referendum on
recriminalizing homosexuality.[7]

Data on Homophobic
Violence

Homophobic violence is not a new phenomenon in Russia. For
example, in May 20o6 hundreds of counter-protesters assaulted several dozen
participants in Moscow’s first LGBT pride gathering.[8]
However, comprehensive data about homophobic violence are unavailable. Russian
authorities do not collect data on the number of incidents of homophobic
violence committed against LGBT people in the country.[9]
This absence of data makes it very difficult to understand the changing
dynamics and the spread of anti-LGBT violence.

Some unofficial data paint a partial picture of the scope of
homophobic violence and its dynamic over the past three years. For example, the
Russian LGBT Network, an umbrella LGBT group based in St. Petersburg, conducted
an anonymous survey on discrimination against LGBT people in Russia in 2013.
More than 15 percent of the 2,007 respondents said that they had experienced
physical violence, and 50 percent said they had experienced psychological
abuse.[10]

The group’s report on violence against LGBT people in
2011 documented 34 attacks, and its 2012 report compiled information about 22
attacks involving a total of about 210 victims.[11]
Russian LGBT activists who regularly gather information from the LGBT community
told Human Rights Watch that since 2011-2012 the number of attacks and
instances of harassment against LGBT people has increased and that the
brutality of the attacks has worsened.[12] This
period coincided with the years when a growing number of regional legislatures,
followed by the State Duma, adopted laws banning the dissemination to children
of what the laws termed propaganda about LGBT relationships.

Russia’s Anti-LGBT “Propaganda” Laws

Federal Law Banning “Propaganda of Nontraditional
Sexual Relations”

On June 29, 2013, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed Federal
Law No. 135-FZ “aimed at protecting children
from information promoting the denial of traditional family values.”[13]
The law bans the “promotion of nontraditional sexual relations to
minors,” a reference that is universally understood to be lesbian, gay,
and bisexual relationships.[14]
Promoting nontraditional sexual relations to children is considered to be

spreading information aimed at instilling in minors nontraditional
sexual arrangements, the attractiveness of nontraditional sexual relations
and/or a distorted view that society places an equal value on traditional and
nontraditional sexual relations or propagating information on nontraditional
sexual relations making them appear interesting.[15]

The ban applies to information provided via the press,
television, radio, and the Internet. Passed unanimously by the Russian
parliament, the law consists of amendments to the Law on Protection of Children
from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development and to the Code of
Administrative Violations.

Under the law, people found
responsible for “promotion of nontraditional sexual relationships among
minors,” an administrative infraction, face fines of between 4,000 and
5,000 rubles (US$120 to $150); government officials face fines of 40,000 to
50,000 rubles ($1,200 to $1,450); and organizations, up to 1 million rubles
($30,000) or a suspension of activity for up to 90 days. Heavier fines may be
imposed for the same actions if done through mass media and telecommunications,
including the Internet. Foreigners who violate the ban can be deported.[16] On September
23, 2014, Russia’s Constitutional Court deemed the ban to be constitutional.
It found the ban aimed to protect constitutional values such as “family
and childhood” and children from harm to their development. The court
also rejected arguments that the ban interfered with the right to privacy or
prohibited or censured what it called “nontraditional” sexual
relationships or debates about them.

Nevertheless, when
scrutinized against international human rights standards, the law clearly falls
foul of the prohibition on discrimination and imposes unjustified restrictions
on the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly, with a
disproportionate impact on LGBT persons and activists.

A legal opinion issued in
June 2013 by the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory
panel on constitutional matters, concluded that the draft of the adopted
federal anti-LGBT law was “incompatible with [the European Convention on
Human Rights] and international human rights standards” and should be
repealed. The opinion, which covered draft legislation under consideration in
Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova, found that the purpose of such laws “is not
so much to advance and promote traditional values and attitudes toward family
and sexuality but rather to curtail nontraditional ones by punishing their
expression and promotion.”[17]

The law purports to protect children from potential harmful
subject matter but in fact by denying them access to essential information and
creating a stigma against LGBT children and LGBT family members, it directly
harms children. During a periodic review
in January 2014 of Russia’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the
Russian authorities “repeal its laws prohibiting propaganda of
homosexuality and ensure that children who belong to LGBTI groups or children
of LGBTI families are not subjected to any forms of discrimination by raising
the awareness of the public on equality and nondiscrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity.”[18]

Cases of Enforcement of
the Anti-LGBT “Propaganda” Law

As far as Human Rights Watch is aware, as of December
3, 2014, at least four people have been found guilty of violating the federal
anti-LGBT “propaganda” law.[19]

On December 3, 2013, a court in the northern Russian city of
Arkhangelsk found two Russian LGBT rights activists, Nikolai Alekseyev and
Yaroslav Yevtushenko, guilty of violating the federal anti-LGBT
“propaganda” law because they stood next to a children’s
library in Arkhangelsk with a sign that said, “There’s no such
thing as gay propaganda, you don't become gay, you're born gay."[20]
The court fined them 4,000 rubles ($120) each.

After they lost their January 2014 appeal, the activists
reportedly filed a case against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights
challenging the ruling.[21]

The third person to be found liable under the federal
“propaganda” law is Dmitry Isakov, an LGBT activist from Kazan, a
city 800 kilometers east of Moscow. A Kazan court fined Isakov 4,000 rubles ($120)
for violating the law because on June 30, 2013, he held a one-minute picket on
the city’s central square, holding a placard that said, “Being gay
and loving gays is normal; beating gays and killing gays is criminal.”[22]

In February 2014 a Kazan appeals court upheld the decision.[23]
Isakov told Human Rights Watch that he has since filed a case with the European
Court of Human Rights challenging the ruling.[24]

Authorities in Khabarovsk filed a lawsuit against an editor
of Molodoi Dalnevostochnik, the oldest newspaper in Khabarovsk region,
under the “propaganda” law.[25] In
September 2013 the newspaper published an interview with a gay teacher from
Khabarovsk in which the teacher was quoted saying, “My own existence
proves that homosexuality is normal.”[26] The
Russian state body for media oversight accused the newspaper’s editor of
violating the law because the newspaper was marked 16+, indicating that it is
appropriate for readers older than 16.[27]

According to media reports, in January 2014 a Khabarovsk
court fined the newspaper’s editor 50,000 rubles (approximately $1,450).[28]
The ruling was upheld on appeal.[29]

The authorities filed a suit against Deti-404, an online
group that offers psychological support and a community for LGBT children who
are victims of violence and aggression because of their sexuality.[30]
The “404” in the group’s title is a reference to the standard
Internet “error 404” message, which indicates a nonexistent
webpage.

Maria Kozlovskaya, the defense lawyer for Deti-404’s
administrator, told Human Rights Watch that in October 2013 Vitali Milonov,
a member of the St. Petersburg city council and one of the authors of the St.
Petersburg regional law banning propaganda for homosexuality (see below), filed
a complaint with the authorities to review the group’s activities.[31]
In the complaint, Milonov claimed that Deti-404’s activities might
constitute propaganda for “nontraditional sexual relationships,” in
violation of the federal law.[32]

In February 2014, a court found no elements of
“propaganda for nontraditional sexual relationships” in Deti-404
and dismissed the suit against the administrator.[33]
However on November 18 Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state agency for media
oversight, filed a complaint against Deti-404’s administrator, Lena
Klimova, that she had violated the same law. According to a statement by
Roskomnadzor issued on November 17, the case will be referred to a
magistrates’ court.[34] In the
charges Roskomnadzor claimed that what Deti-404 published “could cause
children to think that to be gay means to be a person who is brave, strong,
confident, persistent, who has a sense of dignity and self-respect.”[35]
Officials from Roskomnadzor told Klimova that they launched the case upon the
requests of many individuals who had complained about Deti-404. At time of
writing, Klimova was awaiting trial.

Human Rights Watch is also aware of, but was unable to
confirm, a report in the Russian media that in August 2014 a court in Smolensk
fined a manufacturer of children’s games 45,000 rubles ($1,250) because a
“dare” in its card game, “Fanty,”—a version of
the game Truth or Dare—was deemed to constitute propaganda.[36]

Regional Anti-LGBT “Propaganda” Laws

Earlier efforts to ban “propaganda of
homosexuality” date from 2003 to 2006, when federal lawmakers made
several attempts to introduce criminal penalties for it.[37]
They were not successful.[38] However
beginning in 2006, 11 regional legislatures adopted laws similar to the one
eventually adopted by the State Duma and signed into law by president Putin.[39]
Legislatures in 10 regions made the promotion of positive communication about
LGBT relations to children an administrative offense. These are: Ryazan region
(2006), Arkhangelsk region (2011), Kostroma region (2012), Novosibirsk region
(2012), Magadan region (2012), Samara region (2012), Krasnodar krai (2012), the
Bashkortostan republic (2012), St. Petersburg city (2012), and Irkutsk region
(2013).[40]

A Kaliningrad regional law adopted in January 2013 bans
“propaganda of pedophilia, sexual relationships with minors,
homosexuality, lesbianism, and bisexuality” not only to children but to
the general public.[41]

Several cases are known to have been pursued under regional
“propaganda” laws.[42] One case,
against LGBT activist Irina Fedotova, was overturned, resulting in monetary
compensation for the accused.

On March 30, 2009, Fedotova stood next to a secondary school
in Ryazan with posters that said, “Homosexuality is normal” and,
“I am proud of my homosexuality.”[43] A court
ruled that she violated the Ryazan regional “propaganda” law and
ordered her to pay a fine of 1,500 rubles ($45).[44]
Fedotova filed an application with the United Nations Human Rights Committee on
the grounds that the conviction violated the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR). In its October 2012 ruling the committee
described provisions in the Ryazan law as “ambiguous and
discriminatory” and found Russia in violation of Fedotova’s right
to freedom of expression.[45]

In August 2013 Fedotova appealed the court ruling.[46]
On September 26, 2013, the Ryazan Regional Court reportedly acquitted Fedotova
of all charges, and the acquittal was confirmed by the Supreme Court.[47]

In May 2014 a Moscow court ordered the Ministry of Finance
to pay Fedotova 8,000 rubles (approximately $220) in compensation for being
unlawfully prosecuted for “gay propaganda.”[48]

Other activists have also been fined under regional “propaganda”
laws for protests and picketing and have brought cases to the European Court of
Human Rights.[49] Nikolay
Bayev, like Fedotova, on March, 30 2009 stood in front of a school and a school
library in Ryazan with posters stating, “Homosexuality is normal”
and, “I am proud of my homosexuality.” He was also ordered to pay a
fine of 1,500 rubles ($45). In January 2012, LGBT activists Aleksey Kiselev and
Nikolai Alekseyev (who has won a case before the European Court of Human Rights
for bans imposed in Moscow in 2006, 2007, and 2008 on gay rights marches) both
held individualpickets in front of the children’s library in
Arkhangelsk. Kiselev was ordered to pay a fine of 1,800 rubles ($54), and Alekseyev
had to pay a fine of 2,000 rubles ($60). Alekseyev picketed again in April 2012
in front of the St. Petersburg city hall with a poster displaying the quote, “Homosexuality
is not a perversion. Field hockey and ice ballet are.” He was fined 5,000
rubles ($150) for violating the St. Petersburg “propaganda” law.[50]

Other Anti-LGBT Legislation

In June 2013 the Duma passed a law banning foreign same-sex
couples from adopting children in Russia.[51] In
February 2014 Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a governmental decree
expanding the scope of the law and banning all unmarried individuals from
countries where same-sex marriage is legal from adopting Russian children.[52]

In September 2013 a State Duma deputy from the ruling party
introduced a bill that would make homosexual “activities” of one or
both parents legal grounds for denial of parental rights.[53]
The author withdrew the bill on October 16, 2013, reportedly in order to revise
and improve it.[54] It had not
been reintroduced at time of writing.

Anti-LGBT Rhetoric

The Russian government’s narrative depicts LGBT
relationships as destructive to Russia’s traditional way of life, its
population growth, and even its statehood.[55]

The LGBT community in Russia is portrayed as a corrosive
influence of Western governments, which are seen to be tolerant of alternative,
“nontraditional” sexual practices and lifestyles. In
September 2013 at the Valdai Forum, an international discussion on
Russia’s role in the world, President Vladimir Putin criticized Western
civilization’s values, saying that “[countries] are implementing
policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God
with belief in Satan. “[56] He also
pointed out that Western countries lost the ability to procreate.[57]

The government has used the ideological rhetoric of
“traditional values” to persuade Russians to reject LGBT equality.[58]
The discourse of “traditional values” is the ideological framework
that the Russian government has used domestically and internationally to roll
back protection of individual human rights and justify its increasingly
restrictive policies on fundamental freedoms. A heterosexual union, a large
family, religious observance, and obedience to authority are all key elements
of “traditional values.”[59]
On the international level, Russia introduced several resolutions at the UN
Human Rights Council that called for giving priority to the family over the
individual as a subject of international human rights law.[60]

The Winter Olympic Games hosted by Russia in Sochi in
February 2014 put Russia’s anti-LGBT legislation in the international
spotlight because the Olympic Charter includes an explicit rejection of all
discrimination as incompatible with the Olympic movement.[61]
But instead of addressing international concerns over the anti-LGBT
“propaganda” law, Russian government officials insisted that the
law was not discriminatory and that they would enforce it while at the same time
saying gay athletes were welcome.[62]

Other Russian officials simply denied that any
discrimination against LGBT people existed in the country while simultaneously
engaging in homophobic rhetoric. In a particularly explicit expression of
intolerance toward LGBT people, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin
posted a comment on Twitter several days before the start of the Sochi Olympic
Winter Games in which he said, “Politicians who want to legalize same-sex
marriage and to spread propaganda of homosexualism hate their people and do not
wish them to continue to procreate.”[63]

President Putin at a September 2013 Valdai Forum meeting
insisted there was “no infringement on the rights of sexual
minorities.”[64] On
January 17, 2014, a few weeks before the Olympic Games were set to open, Putin
conflated homosexuality with pedophilia saying, “We aren't banning
anything, we aren't rounding up anyone, we have no criminal punishment for such
relations, unlike many other countries…. One can feel relaxed and at
ease, but please leave the children in peace.”[65]

State-controlled media have also played a role in fostering
anti-LGBT sentiments in the country.

In November 2013 the television show Special
Correspondent broadcast an hour-long program in which participants repeatedly
called gay people “perverts” and “sodomites” and
suggested that gay people in Russia are a part of a “Western expansion of
sin in Russia.”[66] It
justified the law as necessary to “protect our children from
perverts.”[67]

Special Correspondent is known for demonizing critics
of the Russian government and independent activists, portraying them as puppets
that help Western governments’ efforts to destroy Russia. It broadcast at
least one other show with hateful rhetoric about LGBT people.

In August 2013 Dmitry Kiselyov, deputy general director of
the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, said on
state-owned television channel Rossiya 1,

I think that just imposing fines on gays for homosexual
propaganda among teenagers is not enough. They should be banned from donating
blood, sperm. And their hearts, in case of a car accident, should be buried in
the ground or burned as unsuitable for the continuation of life.[68]

In February 2013 Maxim Shevchenko, a journalist and a member
of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, in an opinion
on the video portal Russia.ru said that “homosexuals are devil’s
slaves” and called gay people “a weapon of Antichrist.” He
urged the government to pass the law “to ban homosexualism.”[69]

II. Harassment and Physical Attacks against LGBT People

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in
Russia face stigma, harassment, and violence in their everyday lives, and LGBT
victims of violence and groups told Human Rights Watch that these problems
intensified in 2013. Victims in eight cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg,
and Novosibirsk, told Human Rights Watch that they were attacked in public
places, abducted, beaten, harassed, threatened, and psychologically abused.
They told Human Rights Watch that they were afraid to go to the police to
report violence, fearing further harassment and believing the police would not
bother to pursue their attackers. When victims did lodge complaints with the
police, few investigations followed.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 26 people, including one
person under the age of 18, who said they were beaten by hostile individuals or
homophobic vigilante groups for being perceived as gay or belonging to the LGBT
community. Some were slapped or punched in the
face and kicked; some sustained serious bodily injury; and several were held by
force for periods up to several hours and subjected to threats and
intimidation.

Many of the attacks happened in the evening or at night in
public places, such as cafes, on the subway, or on the street. Some took place
during the day, often in the presence of other people who did not attempt to
stop the attacks; in one case bystanders started to intervene but then stopped
once assailants told them that the victim was gay.[70]

That the assailants were motivated by homophobia is
unmistakable. Most interviewees told Human Rights Watch that their attackers
often used offensive, obscene language related
to their sexual orientation, for example calling them pedophiles, perverts, or
abnormal.

Violence and Harassment
by Vigilante Groups

Starting in late 2012, numerous vigilante groups consisting
mostly of radical nationalists began attacking and harassing gay people in
dozens of Russian cities. The groups lure gay men and teenage boys on the
pretext of a fake date and humiliate and often physically abuse them. They film
the attacks and post them on social networks to expose the victims to public
humiliation and make them vulnerable to further abuse. These groups have posted
hundreds of videos online, and they grew increasingly active in the lead-up and
aftermath of the adoption of the anti-LGBT “propaganda” law.[71]

Occupy Pedophilia
(Оккупай
Педофиляй)

The most prominent of these groups is Occupy Pedophilia, a
loosely organized network of homophobic vigilantes that calls itself a
“social movement” and has associated branches and imitators in
dozens of cities and towns across Russia. Since late 2012, its members have
harassed and attacked primarily gay people and children and in some cases also
transgender women and gender queer individuals.[72]

Its founder is Maxim Martsinkevich, who is also known by his
nickname “Tesak,” which means cleaver or hatchet in Russian.
Martsinkevich was part of a neo-Nazi group, has prior convictions for hate
crimes, and at time of writing was convicted for “extremism” for
offenses not related to Occupy Pedophilia.[73]

Occupy Pedophilia’s avowed aim is to protect children
from all pedophilia but has from its inception been an explicitly homophobic
initiative. In all but a few posted videos, the vigilantes have lured the
victims into seeking a same-sex encounter with a child or a younger man and
then, upon ambushing them, accused the victims of being gay or a pedophile and
subjected them to other homophobic slurs, among other abuses.
Martsinkevich’s homophobic remarks are a matter of public record.[74]

Organization, Geographical Scope, and Methodology

In the movement’s early days Martsinkevich traveled to
various cities in Russia and Ukraine to galvanize Occupy Pedophilia groups
which then continued to meet to plan and carry out attacks.[75]
Otherwise, Occupy Pedophilia and its imitators have a mainly online presence,
chiefly through pages they maintain on the Russian online social networking
site VKontakte, where they post and discuss videos of their attacks.

Occupy Pedophilia’s main website has links to webpages
for branches in 22 cities in Russia and Ukraine. These include such major
Russian cities as St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Kaliningrad, Ufa, Ryazan, Rostov,
Tula, Cheboksary, Perm, Orenburg, Omsk, Yoshkor-Ola, Velikii-Novgorod, Pskov,
Kazan, Samara, Magnitogorsk, Belgorod, and Kamensk-Uralsky.[76]

All 22 branches have pages on VKontakte, which also hosts
Occupy Pedophilia groups from an additional 11 Russian cities and towns that
are not on the main Occupy Pedophilia website.[77] This is
not an exhaustive number, as there is often more than one group in one
location. Human Rights Watch counted only those group pages that either contain
videos or re-posts of videos of attacks by other Occupy Pedophilia groups since
2012 and announcements for upcoming “safaris,” as they call their
entrapments and ambushes of LGBT people.

Some Occupy Ped0philia cells have produced one or two videos
of assaults at the beginning of the movement’s creation in late 2012 but
have posted none since, while others—such as the Krasnodar and St.
Petersburg branches—have throughout 2013 posted videos of their numerous
attacks. The Occupy Pedophilia group in Krasnodar posted a video on July 8,
2014 which showed a man being accused of being gay and a pedophile and one of
the assailants pouring what looks like urine over the victim’s
head. The St. Petersburg Occupy Pedophilia group also posted videos in
June 2014 in which the vigilantes hit their victims and threaten to switch off
the camera and push one of the victims into the river.

It is difficult to quantify how active Occupy Pedophilia is
at any given time. There is no central repository of Occupy Pedophilia attack
videos. By November 2013 the primary Occupy Pedophilia VKontakte group alone
had more than 88,000 followers, and as of December 3, 2014, it had over 91,000
followers. [78]

To date no one has counted how many members are in the other
Occupy Pedophilia groups on VKontakte. New cells spontaneously develop, create
new VKontakte pages, and reduplicate their content across multiple pages and
social media platforms, such as YouTube, RuTube, and Odnoklassniki.[79]

The attacks generally proceed in a similar way: a vigilante
group uses a teenage boy, or has someone pose as one online, and engages in an
online chat with the victim, eventually agreeing to meet with him. A group of
young men arrive at the agreed-upon location, where they tell the victim that
he has been tricked and accuse him of being a pedophile. They question him
about his reasons for meeting and his sexual orientation and eventually
verbally, physically, and in some cases sexually assault him.

One of the group’s trademark abuses is pouring urine
over its victims and in some cases forcing them to drink it. Assailants often
hit and kick the victims; in some cases they hit their victims with dildos or
forced them to hold and pose with dildos; stripped them naked; painted or drew
slurs on them; and/or sprayed them with construction foam in the genital area.[80]
In some cases they have also used electric shocks.

Occupy Gerontophilia
(Оккупай
Геронтофиляй)

If Martsinkevich’s Occupy Pedophilia group operates
under the guise of being a group of moral vigilantes protecting children from
sexual abuse, a group called Occupy Gerontophilia, founded approximately
in late 2012 or early 2013 by Martsinkevich follower Filipp Razinskiy, used no such
pretexts. The group targeted gay boys who sought out encounters with older men.
Razinskiy harassed and shamed the boys whom he held by force and is at least
once shown on video attempting to persuade one of the boys to perform oral sex
on him in exchange for being released.[81] Occupy Gerontophilia’s page on VKontakte, which had more than 150,000
subscribers, has since been removed, allegedly for violating the privacy rights
of the children who appear in the videos.[82]

The impact on victims of Occupy Pedophilia-style attacks can
be severe. Twenty-two victims Human Rights Watch interviewed for this report
said that they developed anxiety and became depressed as a result of the
attacks. One said he felt forced to reveal his sexual orientation to his family
members and employers as a preventive measure in case the video of the attack
on him were to appear online.[83] Others
said they stayed at home because they were scared to be outside and to be caught
again by vigilantes. In addition to lasting emotional trauma, some
vigilantes’ victims also sustained serious physical injuries, including
bone fractures and face injuries.

Victims’ Stories

Human Rights Watch interviewed nine people who were the
targets of attacks by Occupy Pedophilia-style groups; some of their stories are
told below.[84] All of them confirmed the pattern of humiliation and abuse described above. One of the victims required surgery and prolonged hospitalization as a result of
injuries he sustained during the attack, and another sustained multiple cuts
and bruises.

At least five victims who initially had agreed to speak to a
Human Rights Watch researcher later declined to do so, citing their fear of
further exposure and retaliation by their assailants.

Zhenya

Zhenya (last name and city withheld for security reasons),
age 28, was ambushed, beaten, and robbed by a vigilante group in July 2013 in a
major Siberian city. [85] When he
arrived for what he believed to be a date with someone he had met online, he
was surrounded by men in their late 20s, accused of being a pedophile, and hit
several times:

I met a guy on a dating website and we agreed to meet
around 10 p.m. He told me, “I’m at my friend’s house now,
come here and I’ll come out.” When I came to the agreed- upon
place, I saw four or five men who ran toward me screaming, “We got
you!” “Pedophile!” “Here’s the boy you wanted to
meet!”

Zhenya was then punched in the jaw by, he believed, two of
the attackers. He also told Human Rights Watch that he believed that at least
one of the men who had hit him wore a metal knuckle:

I felt pain and blood in my mouth, but only later learned
that the attackers had broken my jaw in two places. They took me to a nearby
empty yard and asked me, “So how are we going to fix this?”
“We could break your arms and legs, or…” I understood that
they wanted money.

The attackers forced Zhenya to give them his banking card
pin code and withdrew 50,000 rubles (approximately US$1,600) from a cash
machine. They also stole 8,000 rubles ($250) in cash from his wallet.

Although they did not have a video camera, the vigilantes
recorded the attack on an audio recorder and told Zhenya that they would give
the recording to the police and that he would go to prison:

Before they let me go, they asked me, “Do you know
what people have always done to gays in Russia? They impaled gays!”

Once he was allowed to leave, Zhenya ran to his car and
drove to an emergency care unit, from which he was taken to a hospital. After a
four-hour operation on his jaw, he remained in the hospital for two weeks, and
it took two months for Zhenya to recover fully from his injuries.

A police investigator visited Zhenya in the hospital and
took an official complaint from him about the attack. However, Zhenya did not
tell the police officer about the homophobic aspects of the attack because he
feared being outed to his family and colleagues. At time of writing, to the
best of Human Rights Watch’s knowledge, Zhenya’s attackers have not
been identified or held accountable.

Zhenya was ambushed a second time in early September 2013,
this time by group of young men who identified themselves as Occupy Pedophilia
followers. Zhenya had met a boy on a dating website who said he was 16 years
old and wanted to meet. Zhenya met him at a cafe in the town’s center at
4 p.m. and shortly after was surrounded by at least 15 young men who called him
“faggot” and “pedophile.” Zhenya said that the assailants
recorded the meeting using two expensive-looking video cameras. They forced
Zhenya to show his passport, which they filmed, and told him, “If you
don’t want this video to come out online, contact us.” Zhenya said
that he had understood this as a strong hint that he could buy their silence,
which he did not do. The vigilantes left Zhenya in the cafe 30 minutes later
and punctured two of his car’s tires on their way out.

The video was eventually posted on VKontakte. Zhenya deleted
his VKontakte account after the encounter. Zhenya did not report the incident
to police because, he said, he was not injured, feared further retribution and
ultimately being outed, and did not believe an investigation would be
effective.

Alexei A.

Anti-gay vigilantes ambushed Alexei, age 28, in a suburb of
Novosibirsk in February 2013, accused him of pedophilia, and beat him.[86]
They filmed the attack and published the video on VKontakte and YouTube.

Alexei said he had met a young man on a dating website who
said he was 19. But after two days of exchanging messages, the young man
confessed that he was younger and would turn 16 in two days. They met shortly
thereafter in the suburbs of Novosibirsk around 10 p.m.:

When we met, the young man looked 20, not 15, as he had
claimed. I realized that I had been tricked and decided to leave. This was when
five men in face masks approached me and began punching and kicking me. They
punched me in the face at least seven times. As they were beating me, an
ambulance drove by. I got in front of the car and stopped it. The ambulance
driver asked the attackers why they were beating me and they said, “This
is a pedophile; he propositioned a 15-year old boy for sex.”

Alexei said the driver tried to drive away but that he
opened the vehicle’s door, grabbed the steering wheel, and yelled,
“Please save me! They’re killing me! Don’t leave! Call the
police!”

Alexei told Human Rights Watch that as he was pleading with
the ambulance driver, the attackers continued to punch and kick him. He showed
a Human Rights Watch researcher a photo that he said he had taken after the
attack. In the photo Alexei’s forehead is bruised and red, and one of his
eyes is bruised and filled with blood. Alexei said that he had received these
injuries as a result of the attack.

Alexei said that the ambulance driver and a nurse who was
also in the vehicle eventually called the police. While they waited for the
police to arrive, the assailants remained with Alexei. The ambulance driver
tried to hide the vehicle’s license plate to prevent Alexei from
photographing it.

The police officers took Alexei and his attackers to a
police station:

When we all arrived at the police station, one of the
police officers said, “I would have done the same thing [to
Alexei].” I told the police about the video that the attackers made while
beating me.

Alexei said that the police released his assailants after
about an hour and a half without searching or questioning them. The police
searched Alexei and his bag, found several condoms, and forced him to stay at
the police station for five hours.

Alexei said that the vigilantes posted the video of the
attack on VKontakte and YouTube, even though he had heard a police investigator
order them not to do so.

Alexei filed a formal complaint against his attackers, who
also submitted a complaint against him alleging that he had propositioned sex
to a 15-year-old.

After a preliminary court hearing which combined both
complaints, Alexei requested and received access to the case materials:

I saw that all my personal information was there—my
full name, address, place of work—and that it is easily accessible to the
attackers as a party to this dispute. I began to fear that they would retaliate
against me if I pursue the case. I also doubted that the prosecution would lead
anywhere. Police caught them right after the attack [and with the video
camera], but it was enough for them to say that I was a pedophile [to get the
police officers’ approval].

Alexei said that he withdrew his complaint, fearing for his
and his relatives’ safety. He told Human Rights Watch that he experienced
“heavy stress” for a month after the attack and was afraid to go
outside. He said that he personally knew at least seven other victims of
anti-gay vigilantes in Novosibirsk:

They [vigilantes] think they have the right to treat us
like this. I feel as if I’m not protected by law. All these bandits have
been given impunity....

Slava S., Novosibirsk

Slava, age 27, was lured for a meeting in Novosibirsk with a
17-year-old boy and ambushed by a dozen men in a shopping mall in September
2013:[87]

They forced me to stand in the middle of the circle they
formed around me. They asked me questions about my sex life and sexual
preferences and then they forced me to yell that I was a pedophile and gay.
They called themselves Athletes against Pedophiles and told me, “We will
catch all of you and we will teach you how to live.” It was around 5
p.m., so there were a lot of people in the mall shopping and dining. But no one
stopped them, no one interfered.

The assailants did not beat Slava. He said they filmed the
entire encounter and photographed his passport; he did not know whether the
video of his harassment by the vigilantes had been posted online and did not
report the assault to the police because he was afraid the vigilantes would
retaliate.

Misha M., Rostov-on-Don

In December 2013 a group of vigilantes in Rostov-on-Don, in
southern Russia, lured Misha for a fake date and humiliated him for being gay.[88]
He had not heard of Occupy Pedophilia or similar groups before the encounter.
He told Human Rights Watch,

On December 29 I began exchanging messages with a man whose
[online alias] was Andrej, who said he was 23. Andrej later told me that he was
in fact 15, but I agreed to meet him because he looked older in his photos.
Andrej invited me to his place. We met at a bus stop, and he was visibly
nervous and became even more nervous once we got to his apartment. I offered to
leave since he was obviously uncomfortable with the situation, but at this
moment several neo-Nazis stormed the apartment and began interrogating me.

Misha told Human Rights Watch that seven men ambushed him in
the apartment. One held an electric shock device and two others had baseball
bats; two more had video cameras. Misha said that they were dressed in t-shirts
with various neo-Nazi symbols, including swastikas. The assailants accused
Misha of being a pedophile and did not let him leave for three hours. They
insulted him with homophobic slurs and asked him questions about his sexual
preferences. The attackers pushed Misha but did not beat him or use the
electric shock device. Eventually, they stripped Misha to the waist and wrote,
“I love men” on his stomach and back with markers and drew rainbows
on his shoulders.

The next day, the assailants posted online photos of the
attack, and a week later they posted the video. Misha told Human Rights Watch
that he had become the target of online harassment by other neo-Nazis as a
result.

Misha said that he did not report the attack to the police
because he did not expect the police to protect him. He explained, “It
was more likely that the police would sympathize with the neo-Nazis who had
attacked me rather than hold them accountable for what they had subjected me
to.”

Everyday Violence and
Harassment against LGBT People by Individuals

Human Rights Watch documented attacks and harassment LGBT
persons face in their everyday lives, for example on the metro, on the street,
at nightclubs, and, in one case, at a job interview. Victims told Human Rights
Watch that assailants followed and in many cases hit them, all the while
accusing them of being gay, calling them “faggots,” saying they
“dressed like faggots,” or saying gay people were
“abnormal” and had no rights. In most cases documented below, the
assailants were strangers, and in one case the victim knew his assailant.

All interviewees told Human Rights Watch how strangers have
hurled homophobic slurs at them in public places, even if not all such
incidents escalated to physical violence.

Only a few people reported the attacks to the police; the
majority did not believe that their attackers would be identified and held
accountable. Almost all victims who filed complaints with the police are yet to
see any effective and meaningful investigations into assaults against them.

Ivan Fedoseyev (Johnny), a 21-year old gay man and
LGBT activist from St. Petersburg, told Human Rights Watch that in three
incidents from February to August 2013, when public discussion of the anti-LGBT
“propaganda” law peaked, strangers harassed him because they did not
like how he was dressed and assumed he was gay.[89]
In one of the incidents, an assailant severely beat him.

In February 2013 Fedoseyev was talking to a friend outside a
gay nightclub in St. Petersburg when two men approached them and began punching
and kicking them while calling them “faggots.” After beating them
for several minutes, the attackers left. Fedoseyev went to a hospital to treat
his injuries—bruises and scrapes—and asked doctors to inform the
police about the attack.[90] Police
never contacted him.

In July 2013 three unknown men approached Fedoseyev on the
street along the Fontanka River in St. Petersburg and started asking him
explicit sexual questions, such as whether he “fucks in the ass.”
Fedoseyev told Human Right Watch that the men grabbed him by his jacket and
asked him whether he wanted to “take a dip in the water.” He
managed to free himself and get away from the assailants.

In late August 2013 Fedoseyev was on his way to a fashion
show, stylishly dressed. He told Human Rights Watch,

A man approached me in the metro and asked me whether I was
afraid to walk “dressed like this.” He asked me, “Do you know
we have a law that bans gays?” He then started to yell offensive insults
about me, calling me a “faggot,” asked people around to take a good
look at me, and followed me into a train. Inside the metro car he called me a
“faggot” and slapped me in the face.

Fedoseyev left the subway car as soon as he could. He did
not report the assault to the police. He said,

I’m scared to go to the police. I don’t trust
them and doubt my complaint would be taken seriously and investigated. I knew
it would be a waste of time. The [propaganda] law gave a green light to
homophobes to attack us.

Risa R., age 28, a transgender woman, was abducted
and brutally assaulted in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2013.[91]
Four attackers forced her into their car and drove to the outskirts of the
city, where they stripped her naked, beat her, and pulled out two of her
toenails with pliers.

They kept calling me a “faggot” and telling me
how much they hated gays. I told them repeatedly that I wasn’t gay, that
I was a transgender woman, but they did not want to listen. One of them said,
“You’re nothing but a faggot. We will get your brain straight right
now.” Several times they threatened to rape me. Then they took pliers
from their car and ripped out two of my toenails. Afterwards, they said,
“Now you will be better off. Now you will be pretty.”

The attackers drove away with Risa’s clothes, leaving
her with nothing to cover her body with and bleeding. She had to walk four and
a half hours to reach her home.

The only thing that mattered to me at that point was that I
was home, that I was alive. I took a shower but told myself I would not look at
my feet because I had experienced enough pain that night.

Risa did not go to the hospital because she was afraid that
she would be asked how she had received her injuries. She also did not report
the attack to the police because she had “no illusions that the police
would investigate.”

In the following months, Risa said, she was verbally and
physically assaulted several more times on the street and in public transport
because people thought she was gay or did not like her appearance.

Another transgender woman, Katya K., from St.
Petersburg, told Human Rights Watch that she was routinely verbally and
physically assaulted because of her gender identity.[92]
She told Human Rights Watch that at a job interview, she was told, “You
[LGBT] all are monsters and perverts. You should be burned!” She was then
physically pushed out of the room where the interview took place. In September
2012 a neighbor wrote a complaint to the police calling Katya a
“pervert” and asking the police to investigate her
“behavior.”[93]

In August 2013 Katya said that she was assaulted by a
drunken man at a grocery store. The assailant called Katya a
“monster” and threatened her with sexual violence because, he told
Katya, “you all enjoy it.” Katya told Human Rights Watch that the
man spit at her. When the store owner called the police, the police detained
Katya but not her assailant. Katya decided not to write a formal complaint
because she knew that the police would not “treat her well.”[94]

Nikita N., age 21, an LGBT activist from Novosibirsk,
told Human Rights Watch that he had been harassed several times because of his
sexual orientation.[95] He said
that in February 2013 a man punched him in the face and called him a
“damn faggot.” The blow broke the skin on his lip and brow. Nikita
punched the man back. He did not report the attack to the police because he did
not believe that anything would be done to punish his attacker. In April 2013 a
stranger approached Nikita at a bus stop and asked him, “What is wrong
with your hair? Why do you have piercings? Are you gay? Are you not afraid to
live looking like this?” Nikita said that the man then attempted to punch
him in the face but missed. Nikita ran away from the bus stop.

Artyom A., age 21, and his friend Alexander A.,
were beaten up in Samara in June 2013 by several men because of their sexual
orientation.[96] An
acquaintance of Alexander became hostile when he found out that Alexander was
bisexual and asked him to meet to talk to him about it. Artyom came along. The
meeting took place after dark, and when the two arrived they saw two other men,
who immediately began punching and kicking them. When a security guard from a
nearby store came out and asked them what they were doing, the attackers
replied, “We’re beating up pedophiles!”

The assailants broke Artyom’s arm and left him with
bruises all over his body. Artyom’s face was heavily swollen from the
beating. Alexander was also badly beaten and suffered a concussion.

Both men filed a complaint with the police the next day.
However, one of the assailants called them and apologized for the attack,
saying that they had gotten drunk and “wanted to have some fun.” He
offered to pay for the two men’s medical expenses. Artyom and Alexander
withdrew the complaint a week later and accepted the offered money. Artyom told
Human Rights Watch that he had surgery as a result of the injuries he had
sustained and spent two weeks in a hospital. He said that he did not believe
that the police “would do anything,” so they preferred to take the
money to cover their medical bills.

Garry G., a 17-year-old queer activist from Moscow,
was assaulted by an unknown man a few hours before he spoke to Human Rights
Watch.[97] Garry
told Human Rights Watch that the man, dressed in a t-shirt with the words
“I am Russian” printed on it, approached him outside a Moscow
subway station. The man grabbed Garry by the collar, pushed him against a
nearby tree and threatened Garry with violence if he “continued to be
this.” Garry told Human Rights Watch that the man referred to
Garry’s androgynous appearance and sexual orientation.

Attacks and
Intimidation against LGBT Activists

Attacks on LGBT Public
Gatherings

Since at least the mid-2000s, Russian authorities have
refused to tolerate most public events in support of LGBT rights and equality,
and homophobic counter-demonstrators have violently disrupted many of them.
Although data are not available, the vast majority of people Human Rights Watch
interviewed who have been involved in such events said in their experience the
frequency of attacks has risen in the past two years. They said that in 2013
anti-gay activists had attacked just about every LGBT equality event of which
they were aware. Most of these gatherings had been held to protest the
anti-LGBT “propaganda” laws.[98]

Human Rights Watch documented 18 violent attacks on LGBT
activists that took place between 2012 and 2014 in several Russian cities,
including Voronezh, Moscow, Novosibirsk, and St. Petersburg.

Twenty-two LGBT activists told Human Rights Watch that they
themselves had been physically attacked at least once while participating in
peaceful public events in support of LGBT equality. They and others also
described how anti-gay counter-protesters routinely harass LGBT activists and
their supporters during public events, use offensive homophobic slurs, or
threaten them with physical violence. In five out of seven cases documented
below, police did not take adequate measures to prevent and stop the harassment
and attacks and in at least one case used excessive force against LGBT
activists and arbitrarily detained them.

The counter-protesters who try to disrupt LGBT public events
represent various informal religious and nationalist groups who claim to be
protecting Russia’s morals and supporting the country’s population
growth. Some of their views, which they articulate often aggressively at LGBT
public events, follows the Russian government’s official discourse about
the importance of Russia’s “traditional values” to protect
Russian society and culture from the corrosive influence of foreign, and particularly
Western, countries and cultures.[99]

CASES

Voronezh, January 2013

On January 20, 2013, a mob of hundreds of anti-LGBT
counter-protesters in Voronezh rushed a group of a dozen LGBT activists trying
to hold a public gathering to protest an early draft of the anti-gay
“propaganda” law. Some people in the mob attacked the LGBT
activists, injuring several of them.

In early January, a small group of LGBT activists received
approval from the Voronezh municipal authorities to hold the gathering. The
activists began receiving threats, including death threats, immediately after
they had posted information about the event on social networks, particularly on
VKontakte, on January 11 and 12. Andrei Nasonov, one of the protest
organizers, told Human Rights Watch that one such message, which appeared on a
pubic VKontakte page dedicated to the event, said, “I will come. I will
come and kill you. When all [demonstration] is over and you’re on your
way home, I will catch one of you and will smash your head. Be afraid, faggots,
you are a disgrace to my country.”[100]

Additionally, he and other activists received more threats
on VKontakte. Nasonov received a direct message in his personal account from
“Aleksei” which said, “Fucking bitch, damn faggot,
we’re going to kill you on the 20th [of January],” and,
“I’ll wait for you, … put Vaseline on your skis so they enter
[you] better =* BITCH.”[101]

Nasonov also received a message from “Vitali”
which said,

You seem to have problems with your head!!! It’s
useless to be offended by you, but we can’t allow you to conduct your
public events!!! Or do you think that police will be protecting you 24 hours a
day??? It’s actually good that you will get together, I’ll see your
faces and remember them, then you’d better watch your back and be
afraid.… Think about it: how will police treat a complaint from a
faggot??? Come on!!![102]

Members of nationalist groups on VKontakte also posted LGBT
activists’ personal data, including their full names, home addresses, and
links to their VKontakte accounts, urging followers to “visit” LGBT
activists before the demonstration.[103]

On January 17 the activists filed a complaint with the
police about the death threats. In a meeting with activists, which Nasonov
attended, police and municipal authorities acknowledged the security threat,
but instead of taking immediate steps to investigate, they tried to convince
the activists to cancel the public gathering. The activists declined and asked
the police to ensure safety at the demonstration. According to Nasonov,
police officials promised to do “what they can.”[104]

On January 20, when a dozen LGBT activists arrived at the
square in central Voronezh that was the venue for the gathering, they saw a
crowd of several hundred counter-protesters, which by one account gradually
became larger, and about 7 to 10 police officers.

When the attack began, around 15 or 20 riot police, dressed
in the usual police uniform without protective body gear, were dispatched to
the square. Three activists who were attacked described to Human Rights Watch
the violence, the injuries they sustained, and their unsuccessful efforts to
seek justice. Andrey Nasonov told Human Rights Watch that counter-protesters
attacked him almost immediately:

When I came to the central square, I saw maximum 10 police
officers and no OMON [riot police]. I saw a huge crowd of anti-gay protesters,
around 500 people who ran toward me as soon as I unfurled my poster, which
said, “Stop hatred.” Two men pushed me, I fell, and they started
kicking me in the head. When they stopped, I got up and passed out.[105]

Nasonov lodged a complaint with local police on January 21,
the day after the attack, and gave testimony to police on January 30. The next
and last contact he had with police was in late March, when police notified him
by mail that the investigation had been suspended as of March 22, 2013 because
they could not identify the assailants. The notice said that the case file had
been forwarded for follow-up to Interior Ministry criminal investigation unit
#6 in Voronezh.[106] Since
then, Nasonov has heard nothing from police regarding the investigation. He
said that he did not contact the police for updates because he had given up
hope that the police would effectively investigate the attack.[107]

Nasonov said that for a few weeks after the attack, he had
felt unsafe in public places and suffered depression.[108]
In July 2014 Nasonov emigrated from Russia to the United States.

The mob also attacked Pavel Lebedev, who co-organized
the protest. Lebedev told Human Rights Watch that as soon as he opened his
poster—which read, “Homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality is
normal!”—a group of journalists, followed by a crowd of
nationalists, ran toward him.[109] A
young man kicked him in the stomach, Lebedev said, and he fell to the ground and
curled up from pain but got up and tried to hold his poster up again. A group
of four or five men immediately pushed him to the ground and kicked him in the
back, legs, arms, and head for about a minute. Lebedev said that police stopped
the beating by grabbing the assailants and pulling them aside but did not
detain them.

Lebedev said that he saw counter-protesters kick and punch
other LGBT activists as well. When someone from the crowd threw an object which
looked like a smoke bomb at the activists, they decided to leave.

Lebedev said that after he was beaten he felt as though he
would to pass out and that he vomited for several days thereafter. The doctor
who examined Lebedev found he had sustained an injury to his abdomen and a
scrape on his forehead.[110]

Lebedev filed a police complaint directly after the attack
and returned several days later to give testimony and work up a police sketch
of his assailants. About 10 days later the police called him and said that they
had identified one suspect, a 17-year-old Voronezh resident.

The police charged the suspect with battery (article 116,
part 2 of the Criminal Code). A separate criminal investigation against other
individuals who had beaten Lebedev was later suspended because police said that
they could not identify the perpetrators.[111]

On August 2, 2013, the Central District Court of Voronezh
found the accused guilty of the battery charge, with no aggravating
circumstances. It sentenced him to two months of correctional labor and ordered
him to pay 35,000 rubles (approximately $970) to Lebedev to cover court
expenses. The appeal hearing, however, was scheduled for January 21, 2014,
exactly one year and one day after the attack. At the hearing, the prosecutor
asked the judge to drop the charges because the one-year term required by law
to prosecute the crime had passed. Although the court did not drop the charges,
the judge annulled the sentence, absolving the attacker of any punishment.[112]

Lebedev was attacked again by three young men unknown to him
on June 3, 2014, while he was sitting with a friend on a bench near his
apartment building in Voronezh. The men said they recognized Lebedev and asked,
“Are you that faggot? I’ve wanted to talk to you for a
while!”[113]

One of the attackers then pushed Lebedev to the ground, and
all three kicked him in the chest and stomach. Lebedev and his friend managed
to run to the apartment building and hide in one of the entrances.

Lebedev said that he immediately filed a complaint with the
police. He received a notice issued on June 12 informing him that the police
did not establish a criminal element in his “conflict” with the
three men, declined to open a criminal investigation, and were forwarding the
case for review to a district prosecutor.[114]

In July Lebedev emigrated from Russia to seek asylum in a
European country.

Svetlana S. was also attacked and injured during the
demonstration. She told Human Rights Watch that it was her first time
participating in an LGBT rights gathering but she decided it was time to speak
out against discrimination of Russia’s LGBT community. She came to the
square with a poster that said, “I am married. I have two children. I am
against article 6.13.1. P.S. It is not shameful to be tolerant.”[115]

Svetlana said that she came by herself and stood on a
separate part of the central square, away from the group of LGBT activists. As
soon as Svetlana opened her poster, counter-protesters surrounded her and said
that they did not believe that Svetlana was married and straight. A few people
threw snowballs at her. Suddenly, she said, she felt a man jumping on her from
behind, causing her to fall face down into the slushy snow. Svetlana said that
she felt at least two or three more people jumping on her.

After what felt like a couple of minutes, an activist pulled
Svetlana out from under the pile of assailants and took her to safety.

She went to a local department of the investigative
committee the next day to report the attack, although she said she knew it
would be useless.[116]

Officials at the investigative committee unit mocked her,
asked her why she had gone to the demonstration in the first place, and told
her that the complaint would be forwarded to the police. In June 2013, when she
inquired with the police about the status of her complaint, she was told that
the police were still conducting a preliminary investigation. Svetlana said
that since then she has received no further information about her case.[117]

On April 20, 2013, Andrey Nasonov and Pavel Lebedev filed a
lawsuit against the police for failing to protect LGBT activists from
aggressive and violent counter-protesters during the January 2013
demonstration.[118]

On October 24, 2013 ,the Central District Court of Voronezh
found no violations by the police at the demonstration and ruled against the
activists.[119]
Although by law the activists should have received a copy of the full verdict
within five days in order to appeal, they did not receive the copy for over
three months, thereby preventing them from appealing.

St. Petersburg, June 29, 2013

On June 29, 2013, a group of LGBT activists gathered at Mars
Field in St. Petersburg to express their support for LGBT rights and protest
discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Counter-protesters violently attacked the activists, and police did little to
prevent the violence and detained LGBT activists and their assailants alike.

Consistent with Russian law, the organizers had notified the
city authorities about the event and obtained an official written confirmation
from the mayor’s office acknowledging the notification.

A group of about 60 protesters gathered at the portion of
Mars Field designated for public events and demonstrations. According to
demonstrators interviewed by Human Rights Watch, there were about 100 police
officers present at the site and more than 200 counter-protesters.[120]
Among them were representatives of informal nationalist groups, such as
“Slav Power,” “The Russian Run,” and others known for
expressing racist and homophobic views online and in other public forums. Some
of the counter-protesters came with children.

The counter-protesters insulted the LGBT activists by using
crude and obscene homophobic language. Shortly thereafter, the
counter-protesters began physically attacking LGBT activists, kicking and
punching them in the presence of police officers. Two activists who witnessed
the attacks told Human Rights Watch that the police intervened only after
counter-protesters threw stones, eggs, and smoke bombs at the activists and
after some of the activists had been beaten.

At least seven activists had to be hospitalized with various
injuries, including a head injury, a broken lip, scrapes, and bruises.[121]
Several videos available online and viewed by a Human Rights Watch researcher
clearly show the counter-protesters punching and kicking the activists and
threatening them with further physical violence.

Reportedly, at least one police officer sustained injuries
from an altercation with counter-protesters.[122]

Half an hour after the demonstration began and after the
counter-protesters had physically attacked and thrown smoke bombs at the
activists, the police demanded that all the demonstrators leave, claiming they
had received an onlooker’s complaint alleging that the children whose
parents had brought them to the gathering were being exposed to
“homosexual propaganda.”

When the LGBT activists refused to leave, the police
advanced on them, forcing them to move toward police buses parked nearby and
detaining them. Police forcefully pushed demonstrators using their batons,
including by holding batons across people’s throats.[123]
Several LGBT activists received bruises and scrapes as a result.

Daniil Grachev, 20, activist with the Alliance of
Straight People for LGBT Equality in St. Petersburg, was one of the protesters
police detained. He told Human Rights Watch that several riot police grabbed
him because he was trying to prevent anti-gay counter-protesters from harassing
and attacking other activists:

Several police officers seized me, and one of them put a
baton across my neck. It was painful and I had difficulty breathing. They
dragged me toward a police bus.

Another LGBT activist, Kirill Fedorov, 21, was badly
beaten by counter-protesters when he and two other activists tried to distance
themselves from the violent crowd. Police detained him nonetheless. Kirill told
Human Rights Watch,

We started moving away from the crowd and I heard someone
yell, “Look, the faggots are getting away!” Someone kicked me and I
fell on the ground. My friends tried to help me and they got kicked too. When I
stood up, they kicked me again, and then they punched me in the face. My lips
and nose were broken and I felt blood on my face and saw it on my hands when I
wiped my face. There were no police trying to stop the nationalists, so my
friends formed a circle around me in order to protect me from further punches,
which were still coming at me. They [counter-protesters] yelled, “Get the
hell out of Russian land, sodomites!”

Fedorov told Human Rights Watch that the police eventually
took the activists into a police bus. Fedorov asked for medical assistance, but
a police officer told him, “You won’t die.” He later filed a
complaint with the police, to no avail.[124]

That day police detained about 60 LGBT activists and took
them to several different police stations. They also detained at least 10
counter-protesters.[125] The
Russian LGBT Network, which provided legal support to the detained activists,
estimated that most activists spent four to six hours in detention before they
were allowed to go home.[126] Yuri
Gavrikov, one of the event’s organizers, was held in a police station
overnight and released on the morning of June 30.[127]
At least 30 detained LGBT activists received police citations for two
administrative offences: “violation of the established order for organizing
or conducting a gathering, meeting, demonstration, rally, or picket”
(article 20.2 of the Administrative Violations Code) and “refusal to heed
orders of law enforcement officials” (article 19.3).[128] Several days later, a court dropped the charges. Human Rights Watch does not
have information about any charges brought against counter-protesters.

St. Petersburg, October 12, 2013

A Human Rights Watch researcher observed a rally organized
by LGBT activists on October 12, 2013 in St. Petersburg to commemorate
International Coming Out Day. After about a dozen LGBT activists arrived at the
Mars Field in central St. Petersburg for the rally, a crowd of at least five
times as many anti-gay counter-protesters harassed and attacked them. Some of the counter-protesters were dressed as priests with religious
accessories; others were in military uniforms and camouflage outfits. The
counter-protesters yelled that gays were “abnormal” and that there
was no place for them in St. Petersburg and blocked access for LGBT activists
to the protest venue. After several attempts to reach the venue, LGBT activists
were unable to start the event.

The LGBT activists told the police at Mars Field that they
were effectively barred from reaching the event venue.[129]
However, the police who numbered several dozen ordinary police officers and
many riot police, did not take adequate measures to ensure access to the venue
and prevent harassment and attacks by anti-gay counter-protesters. The police
began detaining counter-protesters only when several of them started insulting
police officers for not stopping the LGBT rally. A few activists were also
detained but were released after several hours. Their initial charges of
organizing and participating in an unsanctioned public event were eventually
dropped.

On two occasions, in September 2013 and July 2014, police
did provide adequate protection to peaceful LGBT public gatherings in St.
Petersburg, according to LGBT activists. Natalia Tsymbalova told Human Rights
Watch that an LGBT public action in September 2013 took place without major
interference from around 100 counter-protesters due to the sufficient number of
police officers who kept the aggressive crowd away from LGBT activists.[130]
Tsymbalova attributed the proper protection by police to the fact that the LGBT
demonstration was held on the day of the G-20 Summit, September 6, and the
authorities wanted to avoid a scandal.[131]

Another LGBT event in St. Petersburg in July 2014 took place
in relative calm in stark contrast to the usual atmosphere of aggression and
violence. Yuri Gavrikov, one of the organizers, told Human Rights Watch that
there were enough police to ensure the participants’ security and that
the police accompanied them from and back to the subway.[132]

Moscow, October 10-12, 2014

On October 10, a group of so-called “Orthodox
activists” attacked a peaceful LGBT event dedicated to International
Coming Out Day at the Sakharov Center in central Moscow. The event,
organized by the LGBT nongovernmental organization (NGO) Rainbow Association,
was a discussion about what it is like for LGBT people to be open about their
sexuality, with participants sharing some personal stories.[133]
About an hour after the event began, a group of at least 30 anti-gay protesters
tried to access the Sakharov Center.[134] When
the guard did not let them in, they blocked the entrance from the outside,
screamed homophobic insults, and threw several raw eggs at the guard.[135]

The organizers immediately called the police. Two police
officers arrived, but it turned out they had been summoned by the anti-gay
protesters to inspect the LGBT event. When the LGBT activists asked the police
officers to protect them, they said that they could not do anything. They gave
the activists a phone number to call once the event was over and left. However,
when the activists called the number, they said it was out of order.[136]

Still blocked inside the building, the activists said that
they called various police stations but received no assistance. Only after they
called the Moscow prosecutor’s office did the police arrive. Four police
cars arrived at the Sakharov Center at 10 p.m. Between 10 and 15 police
officers created a corridor around the entrance for the participants to leave
the building safely. The police detained at least three of the most aggressive
anti-gay protesters.[137]

One of the assailants, Dmitry Enteo, known for his fervent
anti-LGBT activism and views, posted tweets on his Twitter account around 9 p.m.
saying, “Storming the Sakharov Center, where sodomites are defiling
children, there are 50 of us, victory will be ours”[138]
and, “We’re holding the siege, soon it will be over, the enemy is
terrified and will be defeated soon. Moscow is not Sodom!”[139]

Two days later, on October 12, around 10 LGBT activists held
a small, peaceful, public outreach event in northeastern Moscow. They had
informed local authorities about it. One of the organizers told Human Rights
Watch that the event’s aim was to create “a broad dialogue between
citizens and representatives of vulnerable social groups.”[140]

Two Human Rights Watch staff members monitored the event.
The activists held LGBT-themed banners and distributed brochures about LGBT
equality to passers-by. One of the passers-by was aggressive and insulted the
activists.[141]

A police car with three police officers and two men in
civilian clothing arrived ten minutes after the event started. For twenty
minutes they talked to the activists and photographed their banners. At 3:30
p.m. a second police car arrived and the police officers demanded that the
activists show them a letter from the local authorities confirming that they
had been notified about the event.

Human Rights Watch staff witnessed the police arguing that
LGBT people were not a “social group” and therefore the public
event did not correspond to the declared purpose of the gathering. The police
asked the activists to stop the event and leave; the activists agreed and began
packing their belongings. Meanwhile, a crowd of 30-40 people gathered around
the activists and the police and shouted homophobic slurs at them.

Suddenly, without waiting for the activists to pack up and
leave, the police asked them to get into police cars. The activists refused,
and the police officers forcefully pushed them into the cars.

Eight LGBT activists were detained. Two of them resisted, so
the police pushed them to the ground and dragged them to the car.[142]
One of the activists told Human Rights Watch that police officers hit her legs,
pressed a baton against her throat until she began to choke and, after they took her to the a Sokolniki police station, threated her with more
violence.[143]

All activists were charged under article 19.3 of the Code of
Administrative Offences for resisting the legal orders of police.[144]
All were released around 6 p.m.[145]

LGBT Organizations and
Groups Supporting the LGBT Community

In 2013 several Russian LGBT organizations and their staff were
threatened with violence and had their activities disrupted.

An egregious attack occurred in November 2013 at LaSky, an
HIV prevention center in St. Petersburg serving the LGBT community and men who
have sex with men. Two people entered the LaSky office during a social event
and attacked visitors, shooting one in the eye with a pneumatic gun and beating
another with a baseball bat. As a result, Dmitry Chizhevsky lost sight in his
eye.[146]

Side by Side, an LGBT International Film Festival
based in St. Petersburg, experienced severe, serial harassment by anti-gay activists.[147]
In November 2013 anonymous bomb threats disrupted or delayed almost all of the
festival’s screenings. One person was arrested for making a bomb threat,
but there have been no reports of anyone being held accountable in conjunction
with other incidents.

Although in previous years nationalists and other anti-gay
“activists” disrupted film screenings of the Side by Side Film
festival, the organizers told Human Rights Watch that the disruptions at the
2013 film festival in St. Petersburg were the worst since the festival started
in 2007.[148]At 7:30 p.m. on November 21, just before the festival
began, the shopping center that houses the cinema received an anonymous
telephoned bomb threat.[149] Police promptly swept the building, which had been evacuated,
and found no explosives. The festival’s opening ceremony went on
following a two-hour delay.[150] However, due to the delay organizers were forced to
cancel a reception for dignitaries and a panel with the cinematographer of the
night’s headlining film.[151]

Kirill Kalugin, an LGBT
activist, was attacked shortly before the opening ceremony as he sat in a cafe
near the shopping center. The assailant, Anatoly Artyukh, an anti-gay activist
and leader of the Orthodox nationalist group Narodniy Sobor, allegedly poured coffee
on Kalugin and tried to tear out his earring.[152]

The screenings on November 23
were due to be held at Zona Deistviya, a space located in a loft building
called Etazhi. Etazhi received an anonymous phone call about a bomb threat just
before the screening. Although the threat turned out to be a hoax, one of the
films had to be rescheduled, and Zona Deistviya’s administration
cancelled its rental agreement with Side by Side after the incident, citing a
decision by the Etazhi administration.[153]

On November 25 the Skorokhod
Art Center was evacuated at 9:50 p.m., 20 minutes before the end of a film
screening, due to a third bomb threat.[154] Once again the police swept the building and found no
explosives.[155]

The next day, November 26, a
man called the police and said that a bomb was planted on the premises of Jam
Hall, a venue that was showing the film Blue is the Warmest Color.
Viewers were told to leave the theater and returned after 40 minutes when the
threats were found to be false.[156] Audiences on other floors of the theater, which had
multiple events taking place that evening),were not asked to evacuate.[157]

Shortly before the bomb
threat was reported, three young people left the theater, claiming to be 17
years of age (the festival was open only to those 18 years or older, in
compliance with the law against exposing minors to “homosexual
propaganda”).[158] Vitaliy Milonov, a member of the St. Petersburg
Legislative Assembly and author of that body’s 2012 anti-gay
“propaganda” law, immediately took to social networking sites to
decry the presence of children in the audience.[159] The festival’s organizers have since accused
Milonov of entrapment.[160] Milonov acknowledged that the children were part of
United Russia’s (the ruling party) Young Guard but that they did not attend
the film screening on his urging.[161] Milonov himself attempted to enter the screening but
was kept out by security guards. Throughout the festival, he commented on it on
social media, calling its participants “sodomites,”
“perverts,” and “pedophiles.”[162]

Prior to the festival’s
closing on November 30, unknown individuals began handing out soap and ropes (a
symbol for hanging oneself) to attendees, saying that they were from the
festival’s organizers.[163] The final night was also interrupted by a bomb threat
at 4:30 p.m., which as with previous threats was conveyed through an anonymous
phone call shortly before the final ceremonies were to begin.[164] The festival proceeded after a short delay, during
which police yet again conducted a search for explosives.[165]

Gulya Sultanova, one of the festival’s
organizers, said that during the festival law enforcement authorities responded
to the serial harassment and threats with care and remained respectful in their
interactions with the festival’s participants and viewers.[166]

On November 23, police took
into custody a 37-year-old suspect, who was charged with making “false messages
about a terrorist act” for the false bomb reports on the festival’s
opening night.[167]

Sultanova was not aware of any other individuals being
prosecuted for the other bomb threats.[168]

Russian LGBT Network staff told Human Rights Watch
that in November 2013 they had received threats of an unspecific nature against
the group’s office and staff from anti-gay activists in St. Petersburg.
The LGBT Network chairperson told Human Rights Watch that they did not report
the threats to the police because the threats were not specific and the police
would not have acted until the law was breached.[169]
The group’s chairman was forced to cancel a trip abroad due to fear of
violence against his staff.

QueerFest, an international festival of LGBT culture
held annually in St. Petersburg by the LGBT group Coming Out, experienced
severe harassment and pressure in September 2014, resulting in disruption and
cancellations of several events. One of the organizers, Polina Andrianova, told
Human Rights Watch that QueerFest had never faced such consistent and organized
interference in the six years of the festival’s existence.[170]

Andrianova said that venue owners told her that police
warned them that “public disturbances” could occur during QueerFest
for which the venues would be held responsible. Andrianova also said that
police threatened the venues’ owners with inspections, pressuring them to
break their contracts with QueerFest.

On September 17, a day before the festival was set to start,
the organizers discovered announcements on social networks posted by so-called
“orthodox activists,” mobilizing people to gather near the opening
night’s venue and disrupt the event. The organizers informed the St.
Petersburg ombudsman and the city police of the threats and asked them to take
preventive measures.[171]

The festival’s opening ceremony was scheduled to take
place on September 18 in Freedom Art Space, located in Kazansky business
center, but less than two hours before the opening the venue’s owner
demanded that they not hold the event in the building.[172]
The owner claimed that they were breaking the contract due to
“compromised integrity of the arch over the building’s entrance,
which may result in its collapse.”[173] However,
all other activities in the building proceeded as planned.[174]

After the organizers and volunteers moved the event to a new
venue, a group of approximately ten nationalists tried to break into Freedom
Art Space. Among them were local deputy Vitaly Milonov and radical orthodox
activists Anatoly Artyukh and Dmitry Enteo. Milonov made insulting statements,
claiming that inside “pro-Ukrainian sodomites” were
“propagating homosexualism to children.”[175]

Approximately 20 anti-gay counter-protesters came to the new
venue after most of the participants had gathered inside.[176]
Despite the presence of approximately 15 police officers, 15 minutes after the
opening ceremony began the counter-protesters entered the building and
attempted to break inside the club where the event was taking place, but
security guards stopped them.[177]

The assailants used syringes to spray the audience with
green liquid antiseptic through the open door and physically assaulted participants
who tried to leave.[178] The anti-gay
counter-protesters also threw stink bombs through the club entrance, then put a
big metal lock on the club’s door from the outside, locking in dozens of
participants. Eventually, police dispersed the anti-LGBT counter-protesters but
did not detain any of them.[179]

After the city ombudsman, Alexander Shishlov, arrived on the
scene and demanded law enforcement to act, police collected testimony from 24
people present during the attack.[180] At
least two members of the audience later requested medical assistance.[181]

On September 19, after receiving a phone call from the
police, Etazhi cancelled scheduled QueerFest events an hour before they were to
start.[182] The
same evening, another venue cancelled an event scheduled for September 20.[183]

On September 20 QueerFest lost the venue for its Night of
Independent Music concert when a night club refused to host it. After an urgent
search for a new venue, the organizers managed to start the concert, which went
on for approximately two hours before it was interrupted by a phone call that a
bomb was on the premises. The police asked all participants to leave the club
while they searched the building but found no explosives.[184]

The organizers chose not to publicize the festival’s
further venues, and QueerFest continued in a closed format, with participants
invited to join via webcast.

On September 24 QueerFest held a press conference to discuss
the disruption of the festival. Police tried to pressure the Institute of
Regional Press, which hosted the press conference, to cancel the event under
the pretext that “violations of public order may ensue.”[185] The press conference took place despite the intimidation from the authorities.

III. Government Responses

Victims of homophobic violence face almost insurmountable
barriers to obtaining protection and justice, and the result is virtual
impunity for homophobic crimes. In cases documented in this report, when police
investigated homophobic attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender
(LGBT) people, they were often dismissive of victims’ complaints,
downplaying their gravity or blaming victims for allegedly flaunting their
sexual orientation.[186] In
some cases they made blatantly homophobic remarks, and in one case, they
explicitly condoned homophobic violence and expressed solidarity with
assailants. Even in cases when the police detained the perpetrators right after
the attack, they did not take active and effective measures to protect the
victims.

In seven cases where Human Rights Watch was able to review
documents from criminal and administrative proceedings or interviewed victims
and their lawyers, police did not secure key evidence from possible suspects,
did not take prompt actions to collect evidence, and did not interview victims
and possible key witnesses. In only three cases documented by Human Rights
Watch in this report between 2012 and 2014 were the investigations brought to
court. While at least two of them resulted in conviction, sentences given to perpetrators
of homophobic hate crimes did not appear to be proportionate to the gravity of
harm inflicted on victims.

Moreover, law enforcement agencies willfully ignore the key
motivation behind the attacks, namely hatred of LGBT people. Russian law enforcement
agencies do not treat even the most blatantly homophobic violence as a hate
crime.[187] Not a
single case documented in this report was investigated as a hate crime. When
law enforcement agencies responded to the crimes at all, they treated them as
common crimes, such as hooliganism or assault and battery rather than as hate
crimes. Police also largely lack the necessary skills to conduct hate crime
investigations into homophobic violence.[188]

Furthermore the authorities do not keep data on homophobic or
anti-LGBT violence, and the absence of such data allows them to deny its very
existence and therefore the upsurge in violence. This failing makes it
difficult for anyone to reliably track the dynamics of the violence, obscures
its true extent, and impedes the development of strategies that could protect
people from attacks.

As a result of police inaction, inappropriate treatment of
victims, and failure to use hate crime laws, homophobic violence goes
unreported and unpunished. In 22 cases documented by Human Rights Watch,
victims did not file police reports because, they said, they did not trust the
police, feared more humiliation and violence, or simply did not see any value in
taking time to report the attacks against them because they knew from previous
experience that the police would not bother to carry out an effective
investigation.

Dismissive Attitudes, Victim Blaming, Ineffective
Investigations

Of the 78 victims of homophobic violence or aggressive
harassment Human Rights Watch interviewed, 44 said that they reported the
assaults or harassment to the police. With the exception of the Side by Side
film festival organizer, who said that police in St Petersburg effectively
investigated bomb threats and treated festival participants respectfully, all
said that they were unsatisfied with how the police handled their complaints.
Victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch commonly said that police officers
who handled their complaints were dismissive about the attacks, verbally
expressed reluctance to start preliminary investigations, used homophobic
slurs, and often blamed the victims for “bringing it [the violence] upon
themselves.”[189] In
some cases police explicitly condoned the attacks. Most interviewees whose
cases were the subject to investigation said that they had limited contact with
law enforcement officials after filing the initial police report and little
idea of the status of the investigations.

Those who filed police reports told Human Rights Watch that
hostile police attitudes and reluctance to investigate left them with a sense
of despair and helplessness. For example, Alexei A., the 28-year-old gay man
from Novosibirsk who was the victim of an Occupy Pedophilia-style attack, told
Human Rights Watch that after vigilantes kicked and punched him, a police unit
arrived and took him and the assailants to a police station.[190]
One of the police officers at the station, upon learning that Alexei was gay,
said to him, “I would have done the same thing.” At that moment,
Alexei told Human Rights Watch, he realized that he could not count on the
police for protection.

Alexei said that the police were not interested in
collecting evidence about the attack against him: they did not ask him about
his injuries, which were visible, and did not offer a referral for a forensic
exam to document his injuries. As noted above, they instead conducted a
thorough search of his clothing and his bag. The police found several condoms
in Alexei’s bag and asked him questions about his sex life, which Alexei
said he had found extremely humiliating and distressing to answer.

As described above, Alexei dropped his complaint against the
assailants both because he feared the perpetrators would retaliate against him
and his family and because of the treatment he received by police, which
convinced him that “the prosecution would go nowhere.”[191]

Gleb Latnik, an LGBT activist from Pervouralsk, told Human
Rights Watch that when he went to the police to report an attack against him
that had just happened, he did not receive the protection he had hoped for.[192]
His injuries were visible—there was significant bruising on his forehead,
there were bruises under his eyes, and one eye was swollen shut. The police
officer who took his complaint said to him, “It’s all right,
you’re gay so it’s normal that you were attacked. Why would you
need to file a complaint against anyone?” Several months after the
attack, Latnik emigrated from Russia to the United States.

At time of writing, over a year
after an assailant shot Dmitry Chizhevsky, a blogger and activist, in the eye
with a pneumatic pistol, his attackers still have not been identified and held
responsible.[193]
Chizhevsky told Human Rights Watch that the investigation into the attack
against him was suspended in October 2014.[194]

As noted above, Chizhevsky told
Human Rights Watch that on November 3, 2013, two masked individuals attacked
him and another person at the offices of LaSky, an HIV prevention community
center serving LGBT people. Chizehvsky was in the hallway on his way out when
he saw two masked men at the entrance talking to another LaSky visitor.[195] He said that he felt something hitting him in the eye,
heard several shots fired, and was hit on his back and one of his legs. When he
attempted to hide around the corner, the attackers yelled, “Where do you
think you’re going, faggot?” Despite several medical procedures,
Chizhevsky lost his sight in his left eye.

Criminal proceedings were
initiated under article 213, part 2 (hooliganism committed by a group), but
according to Chizhevsky the police did not actively look for his aggressors.
Although Chizhevsky met several times with the police, he said that he was
disappointed with the investigation. He believes that police did not inspect
the crime scene thoroughly on the day of the attack. For example, LaSky staff
found at least eight more bullets after the police left the premises.
Chizhevsky also told Human Rights Watch that the police only took two or three
fingerprints from the crime scene in LaSky’s rather large office space.

Chizhevsky also received at least
three notices from the police investigator leading his case informing him that
the investigation was suspended because of the police’s inability to
identify the perpetrators, the most recent of which was issued in October 2014.
Chizhevsky believed the investigation was only later re-opened due to public
pressure.

Chizhevsky told Human Rights Watch
that although initially after the attack he was determined to bring his
attackers to justice, after six months of seeing police failure in
investigating his case he gave up hope:

I am planning to leave the country because I don’t
believe that there is any possibility that [the police] will find [my
attackers] half a year later. At first [after the attack] I said that it was
important to stay in the country, it was important to fight back…. [But]
it became crystal clear to me that the situation in Russia these days is such
that it is acceptable to call [LGBT] people such as myself the fifth column and
that it was time to get away from this place.[196]

Chizhevsky left Russia to seek asylum in another country. He
explained, “I want to live for myself a bit.
That is why I made the decision [to leave Russia].”[197]

In its May 20, 2014 letter in reply to questions from Human
Rights Watch, the prosecutor general’s office said that a criminal case
was launched on November 4, 2013 into the attack on Chizhevsky on charges of
hooliganism and battery. The letter said that the investigation was
ongoing but included no further detail.[198]

In several other cases Human Rights Watch documented in this
report, authorities pressed but then dropped charges. This is consistent with
the findings of the Russian LGBT Network’s report for 2012, which found
that of the 22 attacks listed in the report, in two cases authorities pressed
“hooliganism” charges against a total of three people and dropped
charges against one of the three.[199] In two other cases, hooliganism and battery charges were pressed but later
dropped.[200] In yet
another case noted in the report, a woman tried unsuccessfully multiple
times to convince police to investigate a beating she received by attackers
yelling homophobic slurs.[201]
According to the LGBT Network, the victim reported the attack to several
district police units in Moscow, but police officials failed to investigate the
assault.

Unwillingness to
Qualify Anti-LGBT Violence as Hate Crimes

As a result of the inaction and hostile attitudes described,
few cases of homophobic attacks against LGBT people reach the criminal justice
system, and when they do, neither law enforcement officials nor the judiciary
treat them as hate crimes.

Hate Motivation in
Russian Law

Russia’s Criminal Code establishes hate motivation as
an aggravating circumstance to certain kinds of crimes. The Russian law
enforcement and justice system is therefore capable of prosecuting hate crimes
committed against LGBT people.

Under article 63 of the Russian Criminal Code, the
“commission of a crime by reason of political, ideological, racial,
national or religious hatred or enmity or by reason of hatred or enmity with
respect to a social group” triggers additional penalties to such crimes
as murder, inflicting bodily injury, battery, and the like. The Criminal Code does
not explicitly list sexual orientation and gender identity among the types of
enmity on which a hate crime can be based. However, the law allows law
enforcement officers and judges to determine whether a crime was motivated by
hatred of “a social group,” which could encompass LGBT people.[202]
No aspect of the law prevents law enforcement agencies from treating LGBT
people as a “social group” and applying article 63 in the
investigation and prosecution of homophobic violence, but they clearly have
chosen not to do so.

In replies to letters from Human Rights Watch, Russian law
enforcement authorities confirmed that this aggravating circumstance has not
been applied to prosecute crimes against LGBT people who were attacked for
their sexual orientation or gender identity.[203]

LGBT activists say that Russia’s hate crime laws are
inadequate for prosecuting homophobic crimes.[204]
The absence of the definition of a “social group” in Russian
legislation, which would encompass LGBT people and allow Russian prosecutors
and courts to apply hate crime laws against homophobic crimes, creates an
insurmountable barrier for victims and their lawyers.[205]
Courts are expected to rely on experts to tell them whether LGBT people
comprise a social group. In the absence of a definition of a “social
group” accepted in Russia, different experts give different opinions.
Considering the prevalence of homophobic sentiments in public life, these
opinions are not favorable to victims of anti-LGBT crimes.

In several cases documented by the LGBT group Coming Out,
prosecutors pressed extremism charges against perpetrators of homophobic
violence, but courts dismissed the cases because they reasoned that LGBT people
were not a recognized social group. [206]

In its response to Human Rights Watch’s letter
regarding investigations into homophobic violence, the Russian prosecutor general’s
office confirmed that according to law enforcement data no hate crimes against
LGBT people were registered from 2012 to May 2014. In response to Human Rights
Watch’s question, the prosecutor general’s office did not explain
why article 63 has not been applied in such cases.

The letter also stated, “Russian law does not provide
for the registration of police complaints from LGBT people and collection of
statistics about the number of hate crimes specifically committed against
lesbians, gay, bisexual or transgender individuals.” Therefore, the
prosecutor general’s office could not provide this information to Human
Rights Watch, since no such data existed.

Likewise, the Russian Ministry of Interior informed Human
Rights Watch that it does not gather any “statistical data about crimes
committed against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well as
about results of investigations, prosecution and measures to eliminate the
consequences of committed crimes in the framework of the statistical reporting
by the Russian Interior Ministry.”[207]

The Investigative Committee did not include any information
about the collection of hate crime data in their response to Human Rights
Watch’s written inquiries.

Cases

In two cases documented in this report, lawyers representing
LGBT people petitioned courts unsuccessfully to have the attacks against their
clients classified as hate crimes. As described above, on January 20, 2013, a
group of three or four from a mob of several hundred anti-LGBT
counter-protesters severely beat Pavel Lebedev at a small public gathering of
LGBT activists, seriously injuring him. Lebedev’s lawyer, Olga
Gnezdilova, told Human Rights Watch that she petitioned both the prosecutor and
the court to qualify Lebedev’s beating as a hate crime and provided evidence
of death threats received by Lebedev before the protest and pointing out that
the attack took place at an LGBT public demonstration where people came to beat
up “faggots.”[208] Her petitions were declined and, as described above, a court convicted a lone suspect on battery charges and on appeal annulled the punishment it had
assigned him.[209]

In one of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch, an
assailant had openly acknowledged that he was motivated by homophobic sentiment
during the investigation and trial. Gleb Likhotkin attacked Boris Romanov at an
LGBT flash mob marking International Day Against Homophobia on May 17, 2012 in
St. Petersburg. Romanov told Human Rights Watch that the flash mob organizers
planned to release balloons as a symbol of LGBT equality. Romanov said that the
St. Petersburg authorities had sanctioned the event and that several police
officers were present to ensure order. Romanov was holding a balloon on which
he had written, “God loves women and men equally” when Likhotkin lurched
toward him and a woman standing next to him.

A video of the attack, viewed by Human Rights Watch, shows
Romanov trying to protect the woman when Likhotkin fired at least twice from a
pneumatic gun into Romanov’s face.[210] The
video shows Likhotkin, as police were arresting him, declaring to the crowd of
LGBT activists that “sodomy is a mortal sin.”[211]
It also shows another anti-LGBT activist holding a big cross yelling,
“Death to sodomites” mere moments before Likhotkin attacked
Romanov.

Likhotkin’s trial on hooliganism charges began in May
2013. During one of the trial hearings, attended by a Human Rights Watch
researcher, Likhotkin testified that he had interpreted the writing on
Romanov’s balloon as, “God accepts nontraditional sexual
perversion.”[212] He
said that when he heard there would be a “gay pride parade” on May
17, he “did not believe this because we have a law banning gay
propaganda” and that when he went to see for himself, he saw “all
kinds of gay propaganda” (“a distorted/flawed rainbow,”
“a pink triangle,” and “posters”).[213]

Despite testimony Likhotkin gave in court and during the
investigation making clear his motives, the judge rejected without explanation
Romanov’s lawyer’s petitions to reclassify the attack and the
shooting as a crime motivated by hatred toward LGBT people as a social group.[214]
On November 11, 2013, the Petrogradsky District Court in St. Petersburg
convicted and sentenced Likhotkin to one year of probation and ordered him to
pay 10,000 rubles (approximately US$300) as compensation for Romanov’s
temporary loss of ability to work due to his injury. In February 2014 the St.
Petersburg City Court dismissed the case on appeal because it fell under a
presidential amnesty announced in December 2013.[215]

Response To Attacks By
Occupy Pedophilia And Their Imitators

As described below, in the few cases where law enforcement
pressed charges against such openly anti-LGBT vigilantes as Occupy Pedophilia,
including its leader, Maxim Martsinkevich, for their attacks against gay
people, they did not invoke hatred as an aggravating circumstance, even though
the videos clearly show perpetrators using anti-gay slurs in connection with
physical abuse of victims and with force and threats to hinder victims’
escape.[216]

Even though Occupy Pedophilia and associated groups operate
quite openly and Occupy Pedophilia has become active in over 30 Russian cities,
in the past year Human Rights Watch is aware of only two cases in which
authorities have pressed charges and two others in which investigations have
been opened.[217]

In August 2013 some members of an Occupy Pedophilia branch
in Kamensk-Uralsky, where the group was particularly brazen in showing violence
in their videos, were investigated following complaints from 11 assault
victims. The Center for Combating Extremism, with the help of riot police,
conducted a surprise raid on the apartments of the Occupy Pedophilia
branch’s prominent members,[218] where
they found various knives, daggers, whips, live ammunition, and blunt instruments.[219]

In August 2013, criminal investigations into battery were
launched after four victims submitted written complaints against the vigilantes
in Kamensk-Uralsky. In April 2014 media reported that the authorities divided
the case into two separate cases: a case against the group’s leader for
creating an extremist community (article 282.1, part 1 of the Criminal Code)
and a case against eight of its members for participation in an extremist
community (article 282.1 part 2).[220] The
Russian media reported that as of February 2014, three suspects were in
pretrial detention, while others were under house arrest.[221]

On August 15, 2014, a Moscow court convicted Occupy
Pedophilia’s founder, Maxim Martsinkevich, for his extremist comments
online directed against non-Russians and immigrants.[222]
The charges, however, did not include his well-documented homophobic violence.
Martsinkevich was sentenced to five years in a penal colony.[223]
On November 11 the Moscow City Court reduced on appeal Martsinkevich’s
prison term to two years and ten months.[224]

In December 2013 a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for
Martsinkevich on charges of incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as the
humiliation of human dignity under article 282, part 2 of the Russian Criminal
Code.[225] The
charges were related to three videos he had published online. In one of the
videos, Martsinkevich discusses a film about the Great Patriotic War and muses
about what life would be like now if Hitler had won the war.[226]

Russian authorities also reportedly investigated one of
Martsinkevich’s followers, Philipp Razinski.[227]
Russian police opened a criminal case against Razinski, who was 17 years old at
the time, in December 2013, accusing him of extremism under article 282.[228]
It remains unclear, however, whether any other charges were brought against him.[229]

Police also opened a criminal investigation against the
leader of the Occupy Pedophilia group in St. Petersburg, Ekaterina Zigunova.
Zigunova wrote on her VKontakte account page on July 5, 2014 that she is
accused of hooliganism (article 213, part. 2), robbery with the use of violence
(article 161, part 2), and damage to private property (article 167, part 2 of
the Criminal Code).[230] At
time of writing she was barred from leaving the city and from disclosing
information about the case.[231]

In October 2013, police in Nizhny Novgorod reported on their
website that they opened a criminal case against four members of the Occupy
Pedophilia group in Nizhni Novgorod, who in addition to beating their victims
also robbed them. According to the police report, the accused faced robbery
charges under article 161 of the Criminal Code.[232]

Some Occupy Pedophilia groups appear to have begun to take
some precautions to avoid legal ramifications for their actions, mainly by including
disclaimers in their videos alleging that people featured in them are actors.
For example, an October 2013 video posted on the Occupy Pedophilia group page
for Ufa and reposted on the main VKontakte page bears the description
“all people in the video are actors.”[233]
However, the description of the video then reads, “A gay citizen came to
visit a boy and invited the boy to come shower with him, but the boy refused,
and so we decided to talk with him.… We are reposting [this video] to the
maximum, to ruin the life of this bastard, the full episode will come out when
there are 50 reposts.” The video includes footage of a member of Occupy
Pedophilia interviewing the victim and striking him repeatedly with a dildo.[234]

Several of the videos on Occupy Pedophilia groups’
pages depict the victims turning to the camera and stating, “I am an
actor.” In one of the videos, the supposed “actor” is
eventually forced to eat cigarettes, among other “punishments.”[235]

On the face of it, such disclaimers have no credibility, but
Human Rights Watch is not aware of any instances in which law enforcement has
assessed what weight would be given to them.

IV. Harassment and Discrimination of LGBT Persons: Job Dismissals

Human Rights Watch documented seven cases in which LGBT
people or people who support LGBT rights were threatened or pressured to resign
from their jobs as educators in schools, universities, or community centers for
children. In each case, smear campaigns, mostly in the form of petitions
allegedly by concerned parents, targeted the individual on the basis of their
sexual orientation or their personal support outside the workplace for LGBT
rights. In almost all cases the campaigns invoked the anti-gay
“propaganda” law and claimed that the educators could spread “propaganda”
and demanded their dismissal. In six of these cases, their employers presented
the educators with an ultimatum to stop their activism or resign, did not renew
their contracts, or simply pressured them to resign.

Aleksander Beryozkin resigned from his job as an
associate professor of sociology at Far Eastern Federal University in
Vladivostok a few weeks after a public campaign against him started in early
May 2014.[236] A
group of people unknown to Beryozkin created an online petition, which Human Rights
Watch reviewed, outing him as a gay man. The petition and online news reports
accused him of engaging in LGBT propaganda financed by the United States State
Department at the university. The petition called on the university
administration to review Beryozkin’s work and to establish whether he
engaged in “propaganda for LGBT values among students,” including
with those under 18, and to dismiss him if he had.

At the time of the smear campaign, Beryozkin’s
contract was up for renewal. When he discussed the smear campaign with the
university administration, he told Human Rights Watch that an administrator said
to him, “You must understand you can’t stay here.” Beryozkin
said that after being outed as gay in such a public and hateful way, he no
longer felt safe in Vladivostok.[237] He
resigned in mid-May 2014 and left Russia shortly thereafter.

Aleksander Ermoshkin, a secondary school geography
teacher in Khabarovsk, told Human Rights Watch that he lost his job as a result
of an alleged petition campaign against him in August 2013 by a group of people
unknown to him. The group sent a letter to the Khabarovsk Regional Department
of the Education Ministry calling for Ermoshkin’s dismissal from his
teaching job because he is openly gay and a known LGBT activist in Khabarovsk.[238]

The local education department claimed that the letter had
700 signatures and that it alleged that Ermoshkin’s presence in the
school could violate the federal anti-LGBT “propaganda” law because
he presented homosexuality and equality for LGBT people in a positive light.
The school administration forced Ermoshkin, who had taught at the same school
for 10 years, to resign after the local education department supported calls
for his dismissal. Officials at the local department refused Ermoshkin’s
request to see the letter.[239]

Ermoshkin told Human Rights Watch that he sued the school
over the manner in which his resignation was managed. In May 2014 a Khabarovsk
court ruled in favor of the school administration.[240]
The ruling, which Human Rights Watch reviewed, found that Ermoshkin’s
resignation was in accordance with law.[241]
Ermoshkin said that he has appealed the verdict.

Ekaterina Bogach, a Spanish language teacher from St.
Petersburg, was targeted by a homophobic group for her support of LGBT rights.
Media reports said that in November 2013 the group sent a complaint to the
municipal committee on education and began an online campaign harassing Bogach,
claiming that her involvement with the Alliance of Heterosexual People for LGBT
Equality was harmful to her students.[242] The
group claimed to represent a group called Parents of Russiabut
did not include parents of Bogach’s students. Media reports said that the
letter to the education committee called Bogach a “supporter of
perverts” and claimed that she was harmful to her students’
“psyche.”[243]

The committee on education began an internal investigation
into the complaint.[244]

Despite the harassment campaign against her, Bogach kept her
job.[245] Over
100 of Bogach’s former students signed a petition in her support.[246]
Two deputies of the St. Petersburg legislature also expressed support for
Bogach and called on the municipal committee on education to stop the
harassment and investigation against her.[247]

Olga Bakhaeva was forced to resign from her teaching
job in the city of Magnitogorsk after a harassment campaign against her that
began in May 2013.

Bakhaeva told Human Rights Watch that she often posted and
re-posted messages in support of LGBT rights on her account on the VKontakte
social networking website.[248]
Bakhaeva said that in May 2013 the group Parents of Russia had complained
online about these posts to the administration of the school where she worked.

Bakhaeva said that she became the target of an online
harassment campaign, receiving insulting and threating messages from anonymous
users. Some of these individuals told her that LGBT people should not be
allowed to work in schools, alleging that they are in direct violation of the
anti-LGBT “propaganda” law. She told Human Rights Watch that she
had received a message from one of these people that said, “I know how to
destroy someone’s life.”[249]

As a result of the complaint, the school administration
chided Bakhaeva and gave her an ultimatum to either stop her online activism or
lose her job. She told Human Rights Watch that she had to resign because she
felt it was wrong to keep quiet about discrimination against LGBT people.
“I … could no longer stand working in an increasingly hostile
atmosphere,” she said.[250]

In April 2013 Konstantin Golava was laid off from his
job as an after-school activity counselor at a municipal youth community center
in Togliatti, a city 1,700 kilometers southeast of St. Petersburg. Golava told
Human Rights Watch that in December 2012 the management called him to a meeting
in which they gave him an ultimatum to either stop his environmental and LGBT
activism or face immediate dismissal.[251] The
administration eliminated his position in April 2013 and laid him off, he said.

With the assistance of the Samara region ombudsman’s
office he submitted a complaint to the State Labor Inspectorate challenging the
decision. The inspection body concluded that in laying off Golava the
management had violated Russia’s labor laws and filed a lawsuit against
Golava’s employer but lost.[252] Golava
said that he did not appeal the decision because he thought it would be futile.[253]

Oleg Kluenkov, an associate professor of philosophy
at the Northern Arctic Federal University (SAFU) in Arkhangelsk and a staff
member of the Arkhangelsk LGBT group Rakurs, was fired as a result of a smear
campaign against him in local media and harassment by local law enforcement
authorities. Kluenkov told Human Rights Watch that in November 2013 he had
visited Arkhangelsk’s sister city of Portland, Maine in November 2013 as
a representative of a Russian LGBT organization and that during his visit he
spoke about LGBT discrimination in Russia.[254]
Several Arkhangelsk municipal officials visited Portland after Kluenkov and, he
said, were unhappy to hear questions about LGBT rights in Arkhangelsk from
their American counterparts. Malicious articles appeared in local press shortly
thereafter, alleging that Kluenkov had made the trip “on Western
money.”[255]

In December 2013 the Arkhangelsk city prosecutor’s
assistant summoned Kluenkov and questioned him about his trip, particularly
about how his trip had been financed.[256]
Kluenkov said that months later, in April 2014, the prosecutor’s office
sent a note to his university’s management notifying them about
Kluenkov’s violation of the Labor Code due to his absence from the
university during his trip to the United States.[257]
On April 17 the university management issued Kluenkov a reprimand and proposed
that he resign because he “tarnished the university’s image.”[258]
Kluenkov said that the management told him, “All this is happening
because of your trip to America.” He refused and continued to work.

In late May the prosecutor’s office sent a second note
to the university and on June 17 Kluenkov was dismissed due to the alleged
absence from his job during working hours. Kluenkov sued the university for
unlawful dismissal, but the court ruled against him on September 1. He has
appealed the court’s decision.

Kluenkov’s colleague at SAFU and the head of Rakurs, Tatyana
Vinnichenko, also faced pressure from the university’s management. In
April 2014 she was called to a meeting with the university administration and
given an ultimatum: either work at Rakurs or at SAFU. When she asked why she
needed to choose, she was told, “Because the political situation has
changed.”[259]

Both Kluenkov and Vinnichenko told Human Rights Watch that
SAFU’s administration had always been aware of their work at Rakurs and
that prior to 2014 they had never experienced difficulties over their LGBT
activism.[260] Unlike
Kluenkov, Vinnichenko continues to work at the university, where she has a
contract that ends in spring 2015.

V. Russia’s International and Domestic Human Rights Obligations

This report shows that the absence of appropriate and
effective measures by the Russian government to address the escalating violence
and harassment against LGBT people and rights activists constitute a serious violation
of Russia’s obligations under international human rights law.

Russia has ratified numerous international human rights
treaties that place obligations on it to protect the rights of individuals
against violence and other types of abuse. Russia is obligated to take
appropriate measures to prevent, punish, investigate, and redress the harm
caused to individuals’ rights and provide effective remedies to victims
of human rights abuses.[261]

Russia has clear obligations under human rights law to act
with due diligence to protect the human rights of LGBT persons to live free
from violence, to uphold nondiscrimination, and to provide effective judicial
remedies. Unequal protection against violence and unequal access to justice are
prohibited under international law.

International
Obligations Regarding Protection from Violence and Nondiscrimination

Russia ratified the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1973.[262] It
requires all state parties “to respect and to ensure to all individuals
within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in
the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status.”[263] The
ICCPR includes guarantees to the right to life (article 6) and also states in
article 9 that “everyone has the right to … security of
person.” These guarantees impose obligations on Russian authorities not
to ignore danger to the life of people under their jurisdiction, and to take
reasonable and appropriate measures to protect them.

Article 26 of the ICCPR guarantees that “all persons
are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the
equal protection of the law.” The ICCPR also affirms the right to be free
to lead an intimate life peacefully (article 17, the right to privacy), the
right to freedom to express oneself, including one’s gender identity,
through clothes or comportment (article 19, the right to freedom of
expression), and the freedom to move and meet in public without fear of
harassment or attack (article 21, the freedom of assembly). As a state party to
the ICCPR, Russia is obliged to prevent persecution of people for exercising
those freedoms and punish it when it occurs.

The Human Rights Committee (the United Nations authoritative
body which interprets the ICCPR and monitors the countries’ compliance
with it) has long held and emphasized on several occasions that sexual
orientation is a status protected against discrimination under these
provisions.[264]

The UN Human Rights Committee has found states in violation
of their obligations under article 9 on security of the person if they fail to
take adequate steps to protect people in the face of repeated threats to their
lives.[265] The committee has criticized
states’ failure to protect people from violence based on sexual
orientation, noting its concern at “the incidents of people being
attacked, or even killed, on account of their sexual orientation” (article
9), “the small number of investigations mounted into such illegal
acts,” as well as at laws “used to discriminate against people on
account of their sexual orientation” (article 26). It has urged states to
“provide effective protection against violence and discrimination based
on sexual orientation.”[266]

In October 2012 the UN Human Rights Committee issued a
ruling against Russia in a case involving the conviction of an LGBT activist
under a regional anti-LGBT “propaganda” law (see section I). [267]
The committee ruled that Russia was in violation of the right to freedom of
expression (article 19) and labeled provisions in the “propaganda”
law “ambiguous and discriminatory.”[268]

In November 2012 the UN Committee Against Torture expressed
concern at the Russian police’s failure to “promptly react to, or
to carry out effective investigations and bring charges against all those
responsible for violent attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) persons.”[269] The
committee urged Russia to “take effective measures to ensure the
protection of all persons at risk, including … LGBT persons …,
including through enhanced monitoring. All acts of violence and discrimination
against [LGBT people] should be promptly, impartially and effectively
investigated, the perpetrators brought to justice, and redress provided to the
victims.”[270] It
also called on Russian authorities to “publicly condemn attacks against
… LGBT persons … and organize awareness-raising campaigns,
including among police, promoting tolerance and respect for diversity.”

Russia became a member of the Council of Europe in 1996 and
is bound to respect and uphold the organization’s human rights standards,
among other obligations. Russia also became a party to the European Convention
on Human Rights in May 1998, is subject to the jurisdiction of the European
Court of Human Rights, and is obligated to respect and implement its judgments.
With respect to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the court
has repeatedly emphasized that not only is it a violation of the convention,
but it is as serious as discrimination on the ground of race, gender, or ethnic
origin. [271]

In March 2010 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe issued a recommendation on measures to combat discrimination on grounds
of sexual orientation or gender identity.[272] The
recommendation calls member states to act to eliminate discrimination and
ensure respect for the rights of LGBT people.[273]
In particular, it urges states to “ensure effective, prompt and impartial
investigations into alleged cases of crimes and other incidents where the
sexual orientation or gender identity of the victim is reasonably suspected to
have constituted a motive for the perpetrator.”[274]
The recommendation in addition appeals to member states to ensure that
“the right to freedom of expression can be effectively enjoyed, without
discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, including
with respect to the freedom to receive and impart information on subjects
dealing with sexual orientation or gender identity.”[275]
Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5 was unanimously adopted, which means that it
received the vote of a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Yogakarta Principles on the Application of International
Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity provides
that “everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, has
the right to security of the person and to protection by the State against
violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any
individual or group.”[276] The
principles also call on states to take all available measures “to ensure
full enjoyment of freedom of opinion and expression, while respecting the
rights and freedoms of others, without discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation or gender identity, including the receipt and imparting of
information and ideas concerning sexual orientation and gender identity, as
well as related advocacy for legal rights, publication of materials,
broadcasting, organisation of or participation in conferences, and
dissemination of and access to safer-sex information.”[277]

International Human
Rights Law and the Federal Anti-LGBT Propaganda Law

The adoption of the 2013 federal law on propaganda of
“nontraditional sexual relationships” to children and similar
regional laws in 11 Russian regions violates many of Russia’s
international human rights obligations.

As a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Russia
has undertaken legal obligations to guarantee the rights to freedom of assembly
and expression and to ensure the enjoyment of those rights without
discrimination. As noted, the UN Human Rights Committee has already issued a
decision that the type of legislation that bans “propaganda” of
LGBT relationships violates the right to freedom of expression and
nondiscrimination, and the European Court of Human Rights is considering
several similar cases.[278]

While the European Court of Human Rights has yet to issue a
definitive judgment on the application of any of the “propaganda”
laws, it has made clear that activities that constitute promotion of LGBT rights
fall firmly within the protection of the guarantees in the ECHR on freedom of
expression, association, and assembly and that interferences with those rights
will be strictly scrutinized. For example, it has repeatedly and definitively
struck down efforts by Russia and other countries to curtail activities to
promote respect for equality and LGBT rights through bans and restrictions on
public marches or refusal to recognize organizations working on such issues.[279]
The court has reminded Russia specifically,

… As the Court stated in Sergey Kuznetsov v.
Russia (no. 10877/04, § 45, 23 October 2008): “any measures
interfering with the freedom of assembly and expression other than in cases of
incitement to violence or rejection of democratic principles—however
shocking and unacceptable certain views or words used may appear to the
authorities—do a disservice to democracy and often even endanger it.[280]

In rejecting the Russian government’s arguments that
the state was only required to respect and tolerate the rights of sexual
minorities in the private and not in the public sphere, the court noted,

There is no scientific evidence or sociological data at the
Court's disposal suggesting that the mere mention of homosexuality, or open
public debate about sexual minorities' social status, would adversely affect
children or “vulnerable adults.” On the contrary, it is only
through fair and public debate that society may address such complex issues as
the one raised in the present case. Such debate, backed up by academic
research, would benefit social cohesion by ensuring that representatives of all
views are heard, including the individuals concerned.”[281]

Under freedom of expression standards, governments are
required to guarantee the expression of ideas or thoughts that might offend,
shock, or disturb some sections of the population.[282]
Any restriction on the right to freedom of expression must be demonstrably
proportionate and necessary to achieve a legitimate aim. The federal and
regional laws banning LGBT “propaganda” fail this test.

Moreover, according to European Court case law, any measure
that results in a difference of treatment in enjoyment of rights based solely
on sexual orientation amounts to discrimination and is therefore a violation
under the convention.[283]

Children’s Rights

The purported rationale behind Russia’s federal and
regional “propaganda” bans is that the kind of information banned
(i.e. that which normalizes same-sex relationships or portrays them as
acceptable and of equal value to heterosexual relationships) poses a threat to
the intellectual, moral, and mental well-being of children. However, in
practice, not only is there no evidence that such information poses such a
threat, the offending laws violate Russia’s obligations under
international human rights law and in particular the Convention on the Rights
of the Child (CRC), to which it is a party.[284]

During a periodic review in
January 2014 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the
Russian authorities “repeal its laws prohibiting propaganda of
homosexuality and ensure that children who belong to LGBTI groups or children
of LGBTI families are not subjected to any forms of discrimination by raising
the awareness of the public on equality and non-discrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity.”[285]

By targeting and stigmatizing LGBT persons, the ban also
targets LGBT children and children in families with LGBT parents or other
relatives, interfering with their right to freedom of expression, their family
lives, their security and wellbeing, and their right to health and subjecting
them to discrimination.

Critically, as noted by >Anand Grover, the
special rapporteur on the right to health, the ban also violates the
right of all children to access essential information, including vital health
information about issues relating to sexual health.[286]

Russia’s Domestic
Obligations

Russia’s constitution guarantees freedom from violence
in article 21: “Nobody should be subjected to torture, violence, or other
severe or humiliating treatment or punishment.” Russian
authorities’ failure to protect LGBT people from violence and
discrimination is a failure to fulfill that constitutional guarantee.

The Russian Constitution also protects Russian citizens from
discrimination (article 19) and guarantees their right to freedom of expression
(article 29).[287]

The Russian Criminal Code does not have specific provisions
to address hate motives toward LGBT persons as an aggravating circumstance of a
crime. Article 63, however, does contain the term “social group,”
which could cover LGBT victims of crimes, but, as noted above, Russian police
and courts do not consider LGBT persons as a social group. As of today, not a
single crime committed against an LGBT person documented in this report has
been investigated as a hate crime, and therefore not a single perpetrator has
been prosecuted for committing a crime with a hate motive toward LGBT people.

The response of Russian law enforcement and judicial
authorities to anti-LGBT violence is inadequate and constitutes failure to protect
the public from violent crime.

Acknowledgements

Tanya Cooper, Russia researcher in the Europe and Central
Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, researched and wrote this report. Some of
the research was conducted together with Anna Kirey, former researcher with the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights Program.

This report would not have been possible without the many
important contributions from Kseniya Kirichenko, coordinator of strategic
litigation and international advocacy for the LGBT group Coming Out; Alexander
Verkhovsky, director of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis; and
Alexander Burkov, an LGBT activist from Novosibirsk.

Human Rights Watch is deeply grateful to the many LGBT
activists in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Voronezh, Kazan, Novosibirsk, and
other Russian cities who agreed to be interviewed for this report. Their
commitment to protecting rights of victims of homophobic and transphobic
violence is humbling and inspiring. We are especially grateful to all LGBT
persons and their supporters who spoke to us about their experiences. We hope
that one day soon they can live in a Russia free of violence and
discrimination.

Please accept my greetings on behalf of Human Rights Watch.
I am writing to kindly request a meeting for Human Rights Watch representatives
with relevant officials of the Interior Ministry of the Russian Federation to
learn about measures your office is taking to combat violence and harassment of
LGBT people.

As you may know, Human Rights Watch is an independent,
international human rights organization that advocates respect for human rights
in some 90 countries worldwide, including Russia.

In recent months, Human Rights Watch documented many cases
of violence and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
people and activists. A brief summary of the types of violence we documented is
below. We would welcome an opportunity to meet to share our findings with you
in more details and to discuss the Interior Ministry’s role in
prosecuting cases of homophobic violence and other abuses. A list of
specific questions for discussion is at the end of this letter. We are
eager to reflect in our public reporting any steps the Interior Ministry is
taking to hold accountable those responsible for homophobic violence.

Human Rights Watch conducted in-depth interviews with
several dozen victims of homophobic violence in several cities, including Saint
Petersburg and Moscow, in 2013 and 2014. These interviewees, who were all LGBT
people, experienced various types of physical violence and harassment because
of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, we interviewed
over 30 LGBT activists who were attacked or harassed at public gatherings by anti-gay
counter protestors and detained by police for their participation in
demonstrations for LGBT equality. Human Rights Watch also interviewed
representatives of nongovernmental organizations that work to protect the
rights of LGBT people, as well as representatives of other human rights
organizations. Several victims of homophobic and transphobic violence and
harassment declined to be interviewed due to fear of retaliation, of being
outed, and lack of trust in the justice system.

As you must be aware, the absence of statistics on crimes
motivated by homophobia makes it impossible to put an exact figure on the rise
in the number of such attacks in 2013. However, it is worth noting that all of
the victims and LGBT groups, who spoke to Human Rights Watch, said they
experienced an escalation in homophobic violence starting in late 2012.

The types of violence and harassment these individuals told
us about fell into three broad categories. Some interviewees said they had for
years faced stigma, harassment, and violence in their everyday lives, and that
these problems intensified in 2013. Interviewees in cities including Moscow,
St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk told Human Rights Watch they were physically
attacked in public places, abducted, beaten, harassed, threatened, and
psychologically abused. In some cases, their attackers were individuals;
in others, they were groups of homophobic youths. Interviewees said they were
afraid to report the violence to the police, fearing further harassment and
believing the police would not bother to pursue their attackers. When victims
did lodge complaints with the police, few investigations followed.

Other interviewees were victims of abuse by such vigilante
groups as Occupy Pedophilia. As you may be aware, these groups lure men or boys
to meetings, accuse them of being gay and pedophiles, humiliate and, in many
cases, abuse them physically, and post videos of the proceedings on social
media. In one the most severe of these cases we documented, the victims told us
that his attackers broke his jaw and robbed him.

According to its own web postings, Occupy Pedophilia has
carried out attacks in cities including St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Kaliningrad,
Novosibirsk, Ufa, Ryazan, Rostov, Tula, Omsk, Kazan, Magnitogorsk, Irkutsk and
others. Its VKontakte webpage hosts hundreds of videos from more than 30
Russian cities. Other nationalistic groups not directly associated with Occupy
Pedophilia use similar methods to attack LGBT people.

These groups have posted online hundreds of videos of abuse
they perpetrated against gay men. Yet, Human Rights Watch is unaware of
anyone held accountable for perpetrating the abuse depicted in the videos.
Maxim Martsinkevich, the founder and main leader of Occupy Pedophilia, was
arrested by Russian authorities in January 2014. To the best of our knowledge,
he faces extremism charges that are reportedly unrelated to his group’s
violence against LGBT people.

We also interviewed LGBT activists, who were targets of
attacks by anti-LGBT activists, and witnesses of such attacks, during public
events in support for LGBT equality in 2012 and 2013 in Voronezh, St.
Petersburg, Moscow, and Novosibirsk. Interviewees told Human Rights Watch
that law enforcement officials often did not take appropriate measures to
protect activists from violence and in many cases detained them without
grounds. In court, the activists faced administrative charges, some were later
dropped.

Human Rights Watch documented cases of violence and
harassment of LGBT activists in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Voronezh,
Samara, and Kazan. Several LGBT organizations and their staff experienced
violence, threats, and interference with their work. One egregious attack
occurred in November at LaSky, an HIV prevention center serving the LGBT
community in St. Petersburg. Two people entered the LaSky office during a
social event and attacked visitors, shooting one in the eye with a pneumatic
gun and beating another with a baseball bat.

In light of these findings, we would welcome a reply to this
letter at your earliest convenience in order to reflect your office’s
position on these important issues on the problems faced by Russian LGBT people
and activists. Human Rights Watch representatives will be in Moscow between May
20 and 26. We very much hope that relevant experts from the Interior Ministry
will be able to meet with us on these dates.

You can address questions related to the organization of
this meeting to our colleagues in HRW’s Moscow office Ivan Kondratenko
(kondrai@hrw.org, tel: +7 915 175 2711).

Below is a list of questions we would like to discuss at
the meeting:

How many complaints has the Interior Ministry received that
pertain to homophobic violence or hate crimes against LGBT people in 2012 and
2013? How do these numbers compare to previous years?

Is homophobic violence a pattern that the Interior Ministry
tracks? Does the Interior Ministry collect statistics about hate crimes
committed against LGBT people? If so, are they publically available
information? If statistics are not publically available, would the Interior
Ministry be able to share with us any such information?

How many cases of attacks against LGBT people did the Interior
Ministry investigate in 2012/2013? Was anyone prosecuted for such crimes in
2012/2013? If not, are there currently any outstanding investigations?

Has the Interior Ministry registered any quantitative change in
the number of instances of violence and harassment against LGBT people?

Is the Interior Ministry aware of any other initiatives within
the law enforcement establishment to stop illegal and abusive activities of
these vigilante groups and prevent such abuses from happening again?

What mechanisms does the Interior Ministry have in place to
guarantee confidentiality of investigations of cases of violence and harassment
of LGBT individuals (operativno rozysknye meropriyatiya)? How do you
assess the effectiveness of these measures? To what degree is there a specific
need to ensure confidentiality for victims of homophobic violence?

Are there any existing guidelines on addressing homophobic
violence developed by the Interior Ministry? Would you be able to share them
with us?

Do Russian Federation’s police academies include
specialized training on violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity
in their curricula?

We look forward to hearing from you on these issues and to
continuing our constructive dialogue in the interest of ensuing human rights
protections for Russia’s LGBT community. Thank you for your attention and
I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely yours,

Hugh Williamson

Executive Director for Europe and Central Asia division

Human Rights Watch

Translation from
Russian

Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
Administration for Interaction with Civil Society and the Media

May 21, 2014 N 23/126-У

Dear Mr. Williamson,

The Administration for Interaction with Civil Society and
the Media of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
reviewed your letter (dated April 28, 2014 N 126-У)
addressed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

We would like to inform you that the legal basis for service
in the bodies of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation is stipulated by
Federal Law No. Z-FZ “On Police,” dated February 7, 2011, and
Federal Law No. 342-FZ “On Service in the Bodies of Internal Affairs of
the Russian Federation and Amendments to Select Legal Acts of the Russian
Federation.”

The above-mentioned federal laws stipulate police authority
to protect rights, freedoms, and legal interests of a person regardless of
gender, race, ethnicity, language, origins, property and official job status,
place of residence, religious affiliations, beliefs, affiliation with public
associations, and other circumstances.

Educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
(MVD) offer educational programs that provide for obtaining theoretical
knowledge in a volume necessary to conduct operational tasks, taking into
account the specific character of the respective units; the legal basis for
these programs constitute: international law provisions, laws and other legal
acts of the Russian Federation, normative legal documents of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, which are aimed at shaping cultural
and professional competence of future internal affairs staff.

Additionally, we would like to inform you that the Ministry
of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation does not separately gather
information on crimes committed against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and
transgenders, as well as investigation results, prosecution, and measures taken
to eliminate consequences of the crimes committed.

Deputy Head

M.N. Molokova

April 18, 2014

Investigative Committee

Russian Federation

Aleksandr Ivanovich Bastrykin

Dear Aleksandr Ivanovich,

Please accept my greetings on behalf of Human Rights Watch.
I am writing to kindly request a meeting for Human Rights Watch representatives
with relevant officials of the Investigative Committee to learn about measures
your office is taking to combat violence and harassment of LGBT people.

As you may know, Human Rights Watch is an independent,
international human rights organization that advocates respect for human rights
in some 90 countries worldwide, including Russia.

In recent months, Human Rights Watch documented many cases
of violence and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
people and activists. A brief summary of the types of violence we documented is
below. We would welcome an opportunity to meet to share our findings with you
in more details and to discuss the Investigative Committee’s role in
prosecuting cases of homophobic violence and other abuses. A list of
specific questions for discussion is at the end of this letter. We are
eager to reflect in our public reporting any steps the Investigative Committee
is taking to hold accountable those responsible for homophobic violence.

Human Rights Watch conducted in-depth interviews with
several dozen victims of homophobic violence in several cities, including Saint
Petersburg and Moscow, in 2013 and 2014. These interviewees, who were all LGBT
people, experienced various types of physical violence and harassment because
of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, we interviewed
over 30 LGBT activists who were attacked or harassed at public gatherings by
anti-gay counter protestors and detained by police for their participation in
demonstrations for LGBT equality. Human Rights Watch also interviewed
representatives of nongovernmental organizations that work to protect the
rights of LGBT people, as well as representatives of other human rights
organizations. Several victims of homophobic and transphobic violence and
harassment declined to be interviewed due to fear of retaliation, of being
outed, and lack of trust in the justice system.

As you must be aware the absence of statistics on crimes
motivated by homophobia makes it impossible to put an exact figure on the rise
in the number of such attacks in 2013. However, it is worth noting that all of
the victims and LGBT groups, who spoke to Human Rights Watch, said they
experienced an escalation in homophobic violence starting in late 2012.

The types of violence and harassment these individuals told
us about fell into three broad categories. Some interviewees said they had for
years faced stigma, harassment, and violence in their everyday lives, and that
these problems intensified in 2013. Interviewees in cities including Moscow,
St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk told Human Rights Watch they were physically
attacked in public places, abducted, beaten, harassed, threatened, and
psychologically abused. In some cases, their attackers were individuals;
in others, they were groups of homophobic youths. Interviewees said they were
afraid to report the violence to the police, fearing further harassment and
believing the police would not bother to pursue their attackers. When victims
did lodge complaints with the police, few investigations followed.

Other interviewees were victims of abuse by such vigilante
groups as Occupy Pedophilia. As you may be aware, these groups lure men or boys
to meetings, accuse them of being gay and pedophiles, humiliate and, in many
cases, abuse them physically, and post videos of the proceedings on social
media. In one the most severe of these cases we documented, the victims told us
that his attackers broke his jaw and robbed him.

According to its own web postings, Occupy Pedophilia has
carried out attacks in cities including St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Kaliningrad,
Novosibirsk, Ufa, Ryazan, Rostov, Tula, Omsk, Kazan, Magnitogorsk, Irkutsk and
others. Its VKontakte webpage hosts hundreds of videos from more than 30
Russian cities. Other nationalistic groups not directly associated with Occupy
Pedophilia use similar methods to attack LGBT people.

These groups have posted online hundreds of videos of abuse
they perpetrated against gay men. Yet, Human Rights Watch is unaware of anyone
held accountable for perpetrating the abuse depicted in the videos. Maxim
Martsinkevich, the founder and main leader of Occupy Pedophilia, was arrested
by Russian authorities in January 2014. To the best of our knowledge, he faces
extremism charges that are reportedly unrelated to his group’s violence
against LGBT people.

We also interviewed LGBT activists, who were targets of
attacks by anti-LGBT activists, and witnesses of such attacks, during public
events in support for LGBT equality in 2012 and 2013 in Voronezh, St.
Petersburg, Moscow, and Novosibirsk. Interviewees told Human Rights Watch
that law enforcement officials often did not take appropriate measures to
protect activists from violence and in many cases detained them without
grounds. In court, the activists faced administrative charges, some were later
dropped.

Human Rights Watch documented cases of violence and
harassment of LGBT activists in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Voronezh,
Samara, and Kazan. Several LGBT organizations and their staff experienced
violence, threats, and interference with their work. One egregious attack
occurred in November at LaSky, an HIV prevention center serving the LGBT
community in St. Petersburg. Two people entered the LaSky office during a
social event and attacked visitors, shooting one in the eye with a pneumatic
gun and beating another with a baseball bat.

In light of these findings, we would welcome a reply to this
letter at your earliest convenience in order to reflect your office’s
position on these important issues on the problems faced by Russian LGBT people
and activists. Human Rights Watch representatives will be in Moscow between May
20 and 26. We very much hope that relevant experts from the Investigative
Committee will be able to meet with us on these dates.

You can address questions related to the organization of
this meeting to our colleagues in HRW’s Moscow office Ivan Kondratenko (kondrai@hrw.org,
tel: +7 915 175 2711).

Below is a list of questions we would like to discuss at
the meeting:

How many complaints has the Investigative Committee, and, to
your knowledge, your regional offices, received that pertain to homophobic
violence or hate crimes against LGBT people in 2012 and 2013? How do
these numbers compare to previous years?

Is homophobic violence a pattern that the Investigative
Committee tracks? Does the Investigative Committee collect statistics about
hate crimes committed against LGBT people? If so, are they publically available
information? If statistics are not publically available, would the
Investigative Committee be able to share with us any such information?

How many cases of attacks against LGBT people did the
Investigative Committee investigate in 2012/2013? Was anyone prosecuted for
such crimes in 2012/2013? If not, are there currently any outstanding investigations?

Has the Investigative Committee registered any quantitative
change in the number of instances of violence and harassment against LGBT
people?

How many investigations did the Investigative Committee carry
out against members of Occupy Pedophilia and other anti-LGBT vigilante groups
in 2012/2013 for the crimes described in this letter? We would be very grateful
for any information about the charges, the underlying actions that prompted the
charges, prosecutions, and convictions.

Aside from investigations, is the Investigative Committee aware
of any other initiatives within the law enforcement establishment to stop
illegal and abusive activities of these vigilante groups and prevent such
abuses from happening again?

What mechanisms does the Interior Ministry have in place to
guarantee confidentiality of investigations of cases of violence and harassment
of LGBT individuals (operativno rozysknye meropriyatiya)? How do you
assess the effectiveness of these measures? To what degree is there a specific
need to ensure confidentiality for victims of homophobic violence?

Are there any existing guidelines on investigating homophobic
violence developed by the Investigative Committee? Would the Prosecutor
General’s office be able to share them with us?

We look forward to hearing from you on these issues and to
continuing our constructive dialogue in the interest of ensuing human rights
protections for Russia’s LGBT community. Thank you for your attention and
I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely yours,

Hugh Williamson

Executive Director for Europe and Central Asia division

Human Rights Watch

Translation from
Russian

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation

May 19, 2014 No. 208-12485-14

Human Rights Watch Representative Office

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation
(further the Investigative Committee) has reviewed the appeal of the human
rights organization Human Rights Watch on prevention of discrimination and
violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the Russian
Federation.

The Investigative Committee is constantly taking measures to
efficiently execute the authority entrusted to it by Federal Law No. 403-FZ
“On the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation,” dated
December 28, 2010, in the area of criminal judicial procedure, including
protection of rights and freedoms of a human and a citizen. Leadership of the
Investigative Committee pays particular attention to work in this area.

It should also be noted that according to Russian Federation
legislation, information obtained during preliminary investigations cannot be
revealed. Disclosure of private information and circumstances in the course of
investigative actions is not tolerated.

Information on reception of citizens and
organizations’ representatives is posted on the Investigative
Committee’s official website at http://www/sledcom.ru.

Information received from the human rights organization
Human Rights Watch deserves attention and will be considered in the further
work of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

Inspector

Organizational-Control Department

Organizational-Control Directorate

Main Organizational-Inspector Directorate, A.M. Bakulin

April 16, 2014

Prosecutor General’s office

Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation

Yuri Chaika

Dear Yuri Yakovlevich,

Please accept my greetings on behalf of Human Rights Watch.
I am writing to kindly request a meeting for Human Rights Watch representatives
with relevant officials of the Prosecutor General’s office to learn about
measures the Prosecutor General’s office is taking to combat violence and
harassment of LGBT people.

As you may know, Human Rights Watch is an independent,
international human rights organization that advocates respect for human rights
in some 90 countries worldwide, including Russia.

In recent months, Human Rights Watch documented many cases
of violence and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
people and activists. A brief summary of the types of violence we documented is
below. We would welcome an opportunity to meet to share our findings with you
in more detail and to discuss the Prosecutor General’s role in
prosecuting cases of homophobic violence and other abuses. A list of
specific questions for discussion is at the end of this letter. We are
eager to reflect in our public reporting any steps the Prosecutor
General’s Office is taking to hold accountable those responsible for
homophobic violence.

Human Rights Watch conducted in-depth interviews with
several dozen victims of homophobic violence in several cities, including Saint
Petersburg and Moscow, in 2013 and 2014. These interviewees, who were all LGBT
people, experienced various types of physical violence and harassment because
of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, we interviewed
over 30 LGBT activists who were attacked or harassed at public gatherings by
anti-gay counter protestors and detained by police for their participation in
demonstrations for LGBT equality. Human Rights Watch also interviewed
representatives of nongovernmental organizations that work to protect the
rights of LGBT people, as well as representatives of other human rights
organizations. Several victims of homophobic and transphobic violence and
harassment declined to be interviewed due to fear of retaliation, of being
outed, and lack of trust in the justice system.

As you must be aware the absence of statistics on crimes
motivated by homophobia makes it impossible to put an exact figure on the rise
in the number of such attacks in 2013. However, it is worth noting that all of
the victims and LGBT groups, who spoke to Human Rights Watch, said they
experienced an escalation in homophobic violence starting in late 2012.

The types of violence and harassment these individuals told
us about fell into three broad categories. Some interviewees said they had for
years faced stigma, harassment, and violence in their everyday lives, and that
these problems intensified in 2013. Interviewees in cities including Moscow,
St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk told Human Rights Watch they were physically
attacked in public places, abducted, beaten, harassed, threatened, and
psychologically abused. In some cases, their attackers were individuals; in
others, they were groups of homophobic youths. Interviewees said they were
afraid to report the violence to the police, fearing further harassment and
believing the police would not bother to pursue their attackers. When victims
did lodge complaints with the police, few investigations followed.

Other interviewees were victims of abuse by such vigilante
groups as Occupy Pedophilia. As you may be aware, these groups lure men or boys
to meetings, accuse them of being gay and pedophiles, humiliate and, in many
cases, abuse them physically, and post videos of the proceedings on social
media. In one the most severe of these cases we documented, the victims told us
that his attackers broke his jaw and robbed him.

According to its own web postings, Occupy Pedophilia has
carried out attacks in cities including St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Kaliningrad,
Novosibirsk, Ufa, Ryazan, Rostov, Tula, Omsk, Kazan, Magnitogorsk, Irkutsk and
others. Its VKontakte webpage hosts hundreds of videos from more than 30
Russian cities. Other nationalistic groups not directly associated with Occupy
Pedophilia use similar methods to attack LGBT people.

These groups have posted online hundreds of videos of abuse
they perpetrated against gay men. Yet, Human Rights Watch is unaware of anyone
held accountable for perpetrating the abuse depicted in the videos. Maxim
Martsinkevich, the founder and main leader of Occupy Pedophilia, was arrested
by Russian authorities in January 2014. To the best of our knowledge, he faces
extremism charges that are reportedly unrelated to his group’s violence
against LGBT people.

We also interviewed LGBT activists, who were targets of
attacks by anti-LGBT activists, and witnesses of such attacks, during public
events in support for LGBT equality in 2012 and 2013 in Voronezh, St.
Petersburg, Moscow, and Novosibirsk. Interviewees told Human Rights Watch
that law enforcement officials often did not take appropriate measures to
protect activists from violence and in many cases detained them without
grounds. In court, the activists faced administrative charges, some were later
dropped.

Human Rights Watch documented cases of violence and
harassment of LGBT activists in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Voronezh,
Samara, and Kazan. Several LGBT organizations and their staff experienced
violence, threats, and interference with their work. One egregious attack
occurred in November at LaSky, an HIV prevention center serving the LGBT
community in St. Petersburg. Two people entered the LaSky office during a
social event and attacked visitors, shooting one in the eye with a pneumatic
gun and beating another with a baseball bat.

In light of these findings, we would welcome a reply to this
letter at your earliest convenience in order to reflect your office’s
position on these important issues on the problems faced by Russian LGBT people
and activists. Human Rights Watch representatives will be in Moscow between May
20 and 26. We very much hope that relevant experts from the General
Prosecutor’s office will be able to meet with us on these dates.

You can address questions related to the organization of
this meeting to our colleagues in HRW’s Moscow office Ivan Kondratenko
(kondrai@hrw.org, tel: +7 915 175 2711).

Below is a list of questions we would like to discuss at
the meeting:

How many complaints has the Prosecutor General’s office, and,
to your knowledge, regional prosecutors’ offices, received that pertain
to homophobic violence or hate crimes against LGBT people in 2012 and
2013? How do these numbers compare to previous years?

Is homophobic violence a pattern that the Prosecutor General’s
office tracks? Does the Prosecutor General’s office collect statistics
about hate crimes committed against LGBT people? If so, are they publicly
available information? If statistics are not publicly available, would the
Prosecutor General’s office be able to share with us any such
information?

How many cases of attacks against LGBT people did the Prosecutor
General’s office prosecute in 2012/2013? Was anyone prosecuted for such
crimes in 2012/2013? If not, are there currently any outstanding investigations?

How many investigations did the Prosecutor General’s
office take to court against members of Occupy Pedophilia and other anti-LGBT
vigilante groups in 2012/2013 for the crimes described in this letter? We would
be very grateful for any information about the charges, the underlying actions
that prompted the charges, prosecutions, and convictions.

Aside from investigations, is the Prosecutor General’s
office aware of any other initiatives within the law enforcement establishment
to stop illegal and abusive activities of these vigilante groups and prevent
such abuses from happening again?

Are there any existing guidelines on investigating homophobic
violence developed by the Prosecutor General’s office? Would the
Prosecutor General’s office be able to share them with us?

We look forward to hearing from you on these issues and to
continuing our constructive dialogue in the interest of ensuing human rights
protections for Russia’s LGBT community. Thank you for your attention and
I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely yours,

Hugh Williamson

Executive Director for Europe and Central Asia division

Human Rights Watch

Translation from
Russian

The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian
Federation

May 20, 2014 N 27/3-329-2013/ON23905-14

The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian
Federation has reviewed a meeting request letter from Hugh Williamson, Human
Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Division Director, requesting a meeting
with our staff responsible for work on homophobic violence.

We would like to inform you about the following.

According to law enforcement authorities’ data, during
the time period of 2012-to date 2014, no crimes were registered committed out
of homophobia or violence against the LGBT community.

The legislation does not provide for maintaining separate
records of complaints from and offenses against the LGBT community.

Thus, it is not possible to provide you with statistical
information requested on offences committed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender people (further LGBT).

There have been several cases of criminal prosecution of
citizens who committed offences against the LGBT community out of hooliganism
motives in Voronezh region and in St. Petersburg. The Court did not find
extremism motives in these crimes.

On November 4, 2013, the Investigative Directorate of the
Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (SU UMVD) of St.
Petersburg’s Admiralteiskii district opened a criminal case against
unidentified persons under article 116, part 2; article 213, part 2; and
article 111, part 2, point d of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for
acts of hooliganism committed on November 3, 2013 on the office premises of LaSky.
Investigation of the criminal case is ongoing, as well as investigation and
search operations aimed at identification of persons who committed the
crime.

Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors continuously
undertake preventive measures in order to prevent extremist manifestations;
explanatory work among the population is conducted, and the Internet network is
being monitored, among other things.

At the same time, I would like to inform you that the LGBT
community does not always comply with federal legislation regulating
organization and conducting of public events. Not only does this prohibit
authorities to take timely measures to ensure safety and public order during
these events, but also serves as grounds for prosecuting representatives of the
LGBT community.

For instance, on April 11, 2014, in Samara, without prior
notification to the Samara city administration, a public action “with the
goal to bring public attention to the problem of silencing hate crimes against the
LGBT community in Russia” was conducted along with dissemination of
propaganda materials. Three protocols on administrative offences were issued
under article 20.2, part 5 of the Russian Federation Administrative Code and were
submitted to the Samara Leninskii District Court along with inspection
materials, and currently they are being reviewed by the Court.

Since Mr. Williamson’s letter does not include
specific information on infringement of the law, since specific cases of
violence and persecution of LGBT activists are not listed (including by members
of “Occupy-Pedophilia” and other homophobic groups and citizens), and
since victims of violence are not named, there are no grounds for a prosecutor’s
inquiry.

Taking into account the above-stated, we consider a meeting
to discuss these issues impractical at this time.

Acting Head

Department for Supervision over
Execution of Legislation on Federal Security, Interethnic Relations and
Combating Extremism and Terrorism, N.G. Polyakova

[5]
In 2012 Federal Law No. 14-FZ amended article 134 of the Criminal Code, setting
out penalties for having sexual relations with children under 16 years of age
and providing that the penalties for same-sex relations with a child under 16
are more severe than for heterosexual, underage sex.

[6]
According to the Levada Center, a Russian polling group, as of April 2013, 78
percent of Russians believed that homosexuality was either a disease or a
result of childhood trauma, and 12 percent believed that homosexuality was a
variety of sexuality, just like heterosexuality. In contrast, in 1998, 68
percent believed that homosexuality was either a disease or a result of
childhood trauma, and 18 percent believed that homosexuality was normal. In
addition, responding to the question, “How should gay people be
treated?” 22 percent said that gays should be “medically
treated” as opposed to 17 percent in 2005. Sixteen percent said that they
should be “isolated from society” as opposed to 12 percent in 2005.
Five percent said they should be physically exterminated as opposed to 3
percent in 2005. See more here: http://www.levada.ru/books/obshchestvennoe-mnenie-2013
(accessed October 3, 2014). Another major Russian polling group, VTSIOM (All
Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion), published a poll in June 2013
according to which 88 percent of respondents supported the adoption of a
federal law banning “propaganda of homosexuality.” Moreover, the
number of people who favored criminal punishment for homosexuality increased to
42 percent as opposed to 19 percent in 2007. See more here: http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=114190
(accessed December 3, 2014).

[8]
“Russia: Investigate Attacks on Gay Pride March,” Human Rights
Watch news release, June 2, 2006,
http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/06/01/russia-investigate-attacks-gay-pride-march.
Nikolai Alekseyev, a Russian LGBT activist, filed three complaints with the
European Court of Human Rights regarding Moscow authorities’ violation of
his right to freedom of assembly by banning several peaceful LGBT events he
organized in 2006, 2007, and 2008. In its 2010 judgment, the court found Russia
in violation of article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which
prohibits discrimination and Alekseyev’s right to effective remedy,
in conjunction with a violation of Alekseyev’s right to freedom of
assembly and association. The court awarded Alekseyev €12,000
(approximately $15,000) in damages. European Court of Human Rights, Alekseyev
v. Russia, judgment of October 21, 2010, no. 4916/07, 25924/08 and 14599/09
, available at www.echr.coe.int.

[13]
Federal Law of June 29, 2013 No. 135-FZ, “On Amendments to Article 5 of
the Federal Law ‘On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to their
Health and Development,” http://www.rg.ru/2013/06/30/deti-site-dok.html
(accessed October 2, 2014).

[14] The explanatory
note of the anti-propaganda law in its bill form referred explicitly to
“the promotion of homosexuality … carried out via the media as well
as via the active pursuit of public activities which try to portray
homosexuality as normal behavior. This is particularly dangerous for children
and young people who are not able to take a critical approach to this avalanche
of information with which they are bombarded on a daily basis. In view of this,
it is essential first and foremost to protect the younger generation from exposure
to the promotion of homosexuality.”
“Putin signed a law banning gay propaganda to children [Путин подписал закон о запрете гей-пропаганды среди детей],” RIA Novosti, June 30, 2013, http://ria.ru/politics/20130630/946660179.html
(accessed September 15, 2014).

[17]
Council of Europe Venice Commission, Opinion on the issue of the prohibition of
so-called “Propaganda of homosexuality” in the light of recent
legislation in some member states of the Council of Europe, CDL-AD(2013)022-e,
June 18, 2013, http://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL-AD(2013)022-e
(accessed December 3, 2014).

[18]
United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on
the combined fourth and fifth periodic reports of the Russian Federation,
CRC/C/RUS/CO/4-5, January 31, 2014, http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/RUS/CRC_C_RUS_CO_4-5_16305_E.pdf
(accessed December 3, 2014).

[36]
“The director of a Smolensk company was fined for a game with
‘gay-Rambo’ [Директора смоленского предприятия оштрафовали за игру про
‘Рэмбо-гея’],”
RIA.ru, August 6, 2014, http://ria.ru/society/20140806/1018981748.html
(accessed December 5, 2014).

[37]
Draft laws nos. 367150-3, 55235-4, 294197-4, and 311625-4, archives of the
State Duma of the Russian Federation.

[40]
Several regional laws were repealed after the federal anti-LGBT
“propaganda” law was adopted. The Arkhangelsk regional law was
repealed on October 17, 2013, the Kostroma regional law on November 14, 2013,
the Magadan regional law on October 25, 2013, and the St. Petersburg regional
law on June 18, 2014.

[42]
Sozaev, “Analysis of the implementation of the legislation banning
‘propaganda of homosexualism’ to children,” MHG Monitoring.
Human Rights Watch has not done comprehensive research on the numbers of cases
in which the authorities have filed suits against people for violating regional
“propaganda” laws.

[59]
Elena Mizulina, “State Family Policy of the Russian Federation until 2025
[Государственной семейной политики Российской Федерации на период до 2025 года],
concept paper, 2013, http://open.gov.ru/upload/iblock/5df/5dfade1ae031a7f9959d132b73345ec7.pdf
(accessed November 4, 2014). The final version of the concept adopted by the
government on August 25, 2014 did not have references to religion, but it did
emphasize the need to stick to traditional family values,
http://government.ru/media/files/41d4ffd61a02c7a4b206.pdf (accessed November 4,
2014). In November 2013 Elena Mizulina, one of the authors of the anti-LGBT
“propaganda” law, suggested to emphasize “a special role of
Orthodox Christianity” in the Russian Constitution and argued that
Orthodox Christianity is “the foundation of national and cultural
specificity of Russia.” See “Elena Mizulina suggested to enshrine a
special role of the Orthodox Christianity in the Constitution
[Елена
Мизулина
предложила
закрепить
особую роль
православия
в
Конституции],”
TVTs, November 22, 2013, http://www.tvc.ru/news/show/id/23220 (accessed
October 9, 2014).

[61]
The Olympic Charter, Principle 6: “Any form
of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race,
religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the
Olympic Movement.” See http://www.olympic.org/documents/olympic_charter_en.pdf
(accessed December 4, 2014). Also see “Ban
Ki-moon condemns persecution of gay people in Russia,” Guardian,
February 6, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/06/sochi-olympics-ban-ki-moon-lgbt-prejudice (accessed November 4, 2014).

[62]
In August 2013 Vitali Mutko, Russia’s Minister of Sport, said in an
interview, “An athlete of nontraditional sexual orientation isn’t
banned from coming to Sochi…. But if he goes out into the streets and
starts to propagandize, then of course he will be held accountable.” See
“Russian minister warns it won't allow gay rights activism at Sochi
Games,” Associated Press, August 1, 2013, http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/russian-minister-warns-it-won-t-allow-gay-rights-activism-at-sochi-games-1.1355765
(accessed December 4, 2014).

[63]
Dmitry Rogozin’s Twitter account,
https://twitter.com/Rogozin/status/430276874779262977 (accessed October 2,
2014).The word “homosexualism” (“гомосексуализм”)
in Russian has a negative connotation and originates from a period during the
Soviet Union when homosexuality was seen as a mental illness and a criminal
offence. When a person uses “homosexualism” over
“homosexuality,” (“гомосексуальность”)
it is usually meant to express a negative opinion about LGBT people.

[73]
For more information on Martsinkevich’s 2014 conviction, see section III,
“Government Response.” In 2008 Martsinkevich was sentenced to three
years in prison for hate speech during debates at the Moscow cafe Bilingua. In
2009 he was also sentenced to three years in prison for inciting ethnic discord
for imitating a killing of a Tajik migrant, the video of which was posted on
social networks. He was eventually released in late 2010 after serving
his combined prison sentence of three and a half years.

[74]
In extremely isolated cases, the videos target heterosexual men or men who seek
out sex with girls. One video created by the Omsk branch of Occupy Pedophilia
shows a group luring a 31-year-old man with the promise of sex with a
13-year-old girl. Another “capture” is of a 19-year-old man
attempting to meet up with a 14-year-old girl for sex. However, these cases are
extremely few: a search for videos related to young girls on the Occupy Pedophilia
official website yields 3 results (out of approximately 114 videos).

[75]
Martsinkevich conducted lectures and seminars in Moscow and other Russian
cities and towns about a range of subjects, including interaction with police,
pedophilia, and weight loss. Information about his visits to Russian cities can
be found on his VKontakte group’s page “Tesak’s
lecture” and on the website tesak.org. “Russian skinhead
Tesak’s illegal actions in Ukraine: he shaved gays’ hair and posted
the video online [Российский
скинхед
Тесак
устроил
беспредел в
Украине:
побрил геев и
выложил видео
в Интернет],”
Segodnya.ua, November 3, 2013, http://www.segodnya.ua/regions/kharkov/Rossiyskiy-skinhed-Tesak-ustroil-bespredel-v-Ukraine-pobril-geev-i-vylozhil-video-v-Internet-472583.html
(accessed August 8, 2014).

[76]> Occupy Pedophilia groups also operate in seven towns
in Ukraine, according to their VKontakte pages, and one city in Moldova.

[78]
The primary Occupy Pedophilia group on VKontakte was originally administered by
Martsinkevich and other prominent members. An August 2013 article
estimated it had around 75,000 followers; in the week of October 22 to 29, 2013
alone, the group’s followers swelled by almost 1,000. “Russia's new
neo-Nazi sport: terrorizing gay youth online

[83]
Another victim told Human Rights Watch that he stayed away from all dating
websites for at least six months out of fear of being ambushed again.

[84]
In only one case did the assailants claim they were from Occupy Pedophilia.

[85]
Human Rights Watch interview with Zhenya, city withheld, November 19, 2013. The
interview was conducted in a major Russian city where various anti-gay
nationalist vigilante groups are particularly active.

[90]
A May 2012 Ministry of Health decree requires medical personnel to inform law
enforcement authorities when patients’ injuries appear to have been
caused by unlawful actions. Ministry of Health and Social Development of the
Russian Federation, Decree No. 565 of May 17, 2012, “Confirming the rules
by which medical institutions inform internal affairs agencies about incoming
patients about whom there are grounds to believe that unlawful action was the
cause of harm to their health,” Rossiiskaya Gazeta, August 3,
2012, http://www.rg.ru/2012/08/03/vred-dok.html (accessed August 31, 2014).

[98]
For example, Natalia Tsymbalova, one of the leaders of an LGBT group Alliance
of Straight People for LGBT Equality, told Human Rights Watch that she and
other LGBT activists had faced increased interference by anti-gay counter-
protesters in 2013 in St. Petersburg, especially since the Russian parliament
started debating the anti-gay propaganda draft law. She gave several examples
of LGBT public events when police ignored violence against activists and did
not act to stop physical attacks and aggression by anti-gay counter-protesters.
Human Rights Watch interview with Natalia Tsymbalova, St. Petersburg, October
15, 2013.

[99]
Human Rights Watch interviews with several LGBT activists, St. Petersburg,
October 12-19, 2013; observations of a Human Rights Watch researcher at a
demonstration for LGBT equality, St. Petersburg, October 12, 2013.

[115]
Human Rights Watch interview with Svetlana S., Voronezh, November 22, 2013. At
the time, when the State Duma was still considering the draft “propaganda”
law, the article of the Administrative Violations Code banning the administrative
violations code that was to ban “propaganda of non-traditional sexual
relationships” to children was article 6.13.1. As adopted, it is article
6.2-1.

[122]
Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Kseniya Kirichenko, June 30, 2013;
see also Tolmachev, “Report on monitoring of a demonstration in Mars
Field on June 29, 2013.”

[123]
Human Rights Watch in-person and telephone interviews with Daniil Grachev and
Yuri Gavrikov, St. Petersburg, July and October 2013. Both Grachev and Gavrikov
were pushed by police with batons. Video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIwzsRxI65o
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsX2nudLvrw (accessed December 4, 2014).
Human Rights watch viewed these videos and observed police aggressively pushing
and using batons against the activists.

[128]
Human Rights Watch in-person and telephone interviews with several participants
in the gathering, June 30, July 1-2, October 15-18, 2013, St. Petersburg.

[129] Natalia Tsymbalova told Human Rights Watch that she
and other LGBT activists had faced an increased number of interferences by
anti-gay counter-protesters in 2013 in St. Petersburg. She told Human Rights
Watch that instead of ensuring the security of all present activists and their
supporters, the St. Petersburg police looked on while counter-protesters
harassed and beat LGBT activists and in many cases detained LGBT activists
along with their assailants.

[133]
Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Andrei Obolenski, chairman of the
Rainbow Association and one of the organizers of the event who was present
during the attack, Moscow, October 10, 2014.

[148] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Gulya
Sultanova, November 30, 2013. Sultanova that police had dutifully responded to
all of the bomb threats and that the fact that the perpetrators had gone as far
as to commit a crime in making the bomb threats showed that they felt they
would not be punished. “Side by Side with telephone terrorism [Бок о бок с телефонным терроризмом],” Svoboda.org, November 26, 2013, http://www.svoboda.org/content/article/25180632.html
(accessed July 29, 2014).

[149]
“Suspect of hoax bomb threat at LGBT Film Festival detained, faces three
years in jail,” Queer Russia, November 23, 2013, http://queerussia.info/2013/11/23/2632/
(accessed September 30, 2014).

[150]
“Hoax Call Fails to Stop the Opening of VI Side by Side Film
Festival,” Side by Side International Film Festival, November 22,
2013, http://www.bok-o-bok.ru/news/archive?pid=25&lan=1&tid=1051 (accessed
September 30, 2014).

[151]
“LGBT Film Festival Faces Bomb Threats and Cancellations Update,” St.
Petersburg Times, November 27, 2013, http://www.sptimes.ru/story/38574(accessed September 30, 2014). Artyukh is also a
close associate of Vitaly Milonov, a member of the Legislative Assembly of St.
Petersburg and also one of the authors of the St. Petersburg anti-LGBT
propaganda law adopted in 2012.

[167]
Article 207 of the Russian Criminal Code, which carries a maximum three-year
prison sentence. “Provocateurs gave out ropes and soap to LGBT Film
Festival audience, RosBalt; “Suspect of hoax bomb threat at LGBT
Film Festival detained, faces three years in jail,” Queer Russia,
November 23, 2013, http://queerussia.info/2013/11/23/2632/ (accessed September
30, 2014).

[192]
Human Rights Watch interview with Gleb Latnik, New York, November 21, 2013. In
August 2013 three men attacked Latnik and beat him up. Latnik said that the men
called him a “faggot” and a “pedophile” as they were
kicking and punching him.

[193]
Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dmitry Chizhevsky, May 13, 2014.
Except where otherwise noted, information on the attack against Chizhevsky
derives from this interview.

[199]
One of the incidents was an attack on Boris Romanov (please see below for
details of the case). The second case related to an attack on June 12, 2012 in
St. Petersburg by several nationalists against members of the Alliance of
Straight People for LGBT Equality. The assailants beat LGBT activists and
damaged their property, including a video camera. Two members were charged with
hooliganism, but charges against one of them were later dropped. Human Rights
Watch does not have any information about the outcome of the case against the
other person who was charged. Russian LGBT Network, “Report about hate
crimes in Russia in 2012 for the OSCE [Доклад российской ЛГБТ-сети о преступлениях ненависти в 2012 году для ОБСЕ],
http://lgbtnet.ru/sites/default/files/prestupleniya_nenavisti_2012_0.pdf. The report
does not indicate whether, with regard to the remainder of the 22 cases,
victims reported the violence to the police.

[200]
The hooliganism charges were dropped against one of the assailants against LGBT
activists in St. Petersburg on June 12, 2012 (please see footnote above). In
the other case, the battery charges against attackers of a gay club in Tyumen
were also dropped. Russian LGBT Network, “Report about hate crimes in
Russia in 2012 for the OSCE”

[201]
Russian LGBT Network, “Report about hate crimes in Russia in 2012 for the
OSCE.”

[206]
Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Kseniya Kirichenko, October 9-10,
2014. As noted above, article 282 of the Criminal Code, which addresses extremism,
covers, among other things, incitement of enmity and insult to dignity based on
sex, race, nationality language , origin, religion, or belonging to a social
group.

[207]
Letter from the Ministry of Interior to Human Rights Watch, May 21, 2014.

[216]
As noted above, Martsinkevich was arrested for “extremism” but not
for his position in a group dedicated to carrying out violence against gay
people.

[217]
As described above, participants in attacks make little effort to conceal their
faces in the videos posted online. Occupy Pedophilia page administrators on
VKontakte openly advertise their upcoming “safaris,” or attacks,
and alert followers who are interested in participating to privately message
the administrators for the date and location of the planned attack and advise
them about a potential fee to participate in the “capture.”

[223]
“Russian Neo-Nazi Sentenced to Five Years In Penal Colony, But Not For
Antigay Attacks,” The Advocate, August 19, 2014, http://www.advocate.com/world/2014/08/19/russian-neo-nazi-sentenced-five-years-penal-colony-not-antigay-attacks
(accessed September 30, 2014).

[227]
The second criminal case was launched in February 2014 under articles 282
(incitement of hatred or enmity and the humiliation of human dignity) and 137
(violation of inviolability of privacy). However, according to media reports,
the case was opened not because one of his victims was thought to be gay but
because he was Jewish. Rozinski was put under travel ban.

[244]
Human Rights Watch has no information about the results, if any, of the
investigation. “Spanish teacher from St. Petersburg Ekaterina Bogach
about accusations of gay propaganda against her: it is slander, I did not break
the law,” TV Rain.

[257]
Kluenkov told Human Rights Watch that the prosecutor’s office pointed out
that for this trip Kluenkov did not take vacation days and therefore missed
work. Kluenkov, however, said that as a researcher he was not obliged by his
work contract to be at the university on the days when he does not have
classes.

[261]
Human Rights Committee, General Comment 31, Nature of the General Legal
Obligation on States Parties to the Covenant, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.13
(2004), para. 8; European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms, 213 U.N.T.S. 222, entered into force September 3, 1953,
as amended by protocols nos. 3, 5, 8, and 11, which entered into force on
September 21, 1970, December 20, 1971, January 1, 1990, and November 1, 1998
respectively, ratified by Russia on May 5, 1998, article 13.

[262]
United Nations Treaty Collection, International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, https://treaties.un.org/pages/viewdetails.aspx?chapter=4&src=treaty&mtdsg_no=iv-4&lang=en
(accessed December 4, 2014).

[267]
ICCPR, Communication No. 1932/2010, CCPR/C/106/D/1932/2010,
November 19, 2012, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/CCPR.C.106.D.1932.2010.doc
(accessed December 4, 2014). The same law, and laws like it in two other
regions, have been challenged before the European Court of Human Rights.
The cases filed between November 2009 and July 2012 are pending, see
application nos. 67667/09, 44092/12 and 56717/12 (Bayev, Kiselev and Alekseyev
v Russia).

[268]
On March 30, 2009, LGBT activist Irina Fedotova stood next to a secondary
school in Ryazan with posters that said, “Homosexuality is normal”
and, “I am proud of my homosexuality.” She was later convicted for
an administrative violation of the Ryazan regional law prohibiting
“public actions aimed at propaganda of homosexuality among minors”
and ordered to pay 1,500 rubles ($45). Later, in August 2013, Fedotova appealed
her guilty verdict following the ruling of the UN Human Rights Committee. On September
26, 2013, the Rayzan Regional Court reportedly acquitted Fedotova of all
charges.

[269]
UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of the
Russian Federation, adopted by the Committee at its forty-ninth session (29
October-23 November 2012), CAT/C/RUS/CO/5, December 11, 2012, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/droi/dv/83_unconcluding2_/83_unconcluding2_en.pdf
(accessed December 4, 2014), para. 15.

[271]
See X v. Turkey, application no. 24626/09, judgment of October 9, 2012. The
court found Turkey in violation of articles 3 and 14 (prohibition on
ill-treatment and discrimination), as the applicant’s sexual orientation
was deemed to be the main reason for placing him in solitary confinement for 13
months while he was in prison facing criminal charges (para. 57). See also Alekseyev v. Russia, application nos. 4916/07,
25924/08, and 14599/09, judgment of October 21, 2010, para. 108; Vejdeland v.
Sweden,application no. 1813/07, judgment of February 9,
2012, para. 55; and most recently Vallianatos and others v. Greece, application
nos. 29381/09 and 32684/09, judgment of November 7,
2013, paras. 76-77.

[272]
Council of Europe, Recommendation CM/Rec (2010)5 of the Committee of Ministers to
member states on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual
orientation or gender identity, adopted March 31, 2010, https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1606669
(accessed December 4, 2014).

[276]
Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in
Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, March 2007, http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/principles_en.htm
(accessed December 4, 2014), principle 5.

[286]
CRC, General comment No. 4 (2003), Adolescent health and development in the
context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, CRC/GC/2003/41, July
2003, http://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2fPPRiCAqhKb7yhsiQql8gX5Zxh0cQqSRzx6ZfAICbDzm5DUreYo1tlYOkZcPE%2bQh98dgWJaknr%2bF7jm9%2bkvHmi4ctJTvJ1CPTUqN7%2f4K3R8rTOQIXpWvhMbx0f
(accessed December 4, 2014).

[287]
“Everyone shall have the right freely to seek, receive, transmit, produce
and disseminate information by any legal means. The list of types of
information, which constitute State secrets, shall be determined by federal
law.” Constitution of the Russian Federation, article 29(4).